Brown School of Engineering Receives $19.5 Million in Gifts; Will Add Three New Faculty

At its regular winter meeting on Saturday, February 11, 2012, the Corporation of Brown University announced that it had accepted a number of gifts, of which $19.5 million had been designated for the School of Engineering. Included among the gifts was a gift from anonymous donors of $10 million, of which $9 million is for three endowed professorships in the School of Engineering. In addition, there was a gift from an anonymous trustee of the Corporation of $10 million for the School of Engineering, and a gift from an anonymous donor of $1.5 million, of which $500,000 is for the Engineering Dean’s Discretionary Fund.

“This is a fantastic start on our long-term vision of building a great School of Engineering here at Brown,” said Dean Larry Larson. “We will keep working hard on further fundraising efforts, and I expect more good news in the future. We have the great efforts of the University Advancement team,  Provost Schlissel and President Simmons to thank for these transformational gifts.”

In addition, the Corporation announced that growth of the School of Engineering, formally established in 2010, continues as a high priority for the University. Plans for the next five to 10 years call for increased revenues from sponsored research, fundraising, graduate programs at the master’s degree level, and corporate partnerships. For fiscal year 2013, the Corporation has allocated funds to recruit three new faculty and to add technical staff.

As part of the University’s effort to develop the School of Engineering, the Corporation approved a new position in the Technology Ventures office within the Office of the Vice President for Research. That position will focus on patents and technology transfer activities related to engineering.

School of Engineering Hosts First Annual Networking and Career Fair

On Saturday, February 4, the School of Engineering hosted its first annual networking and career fair at Barus and Holley. More than 100 students and over 20 alumni representing more than 15 different companies gathered together for a full-day of panel sessions, presentations, and workshops.

The Engineering Career Fair underscored the incredible availability of Brown alums who want to connect with current Brown students,” said Beverly Ehrich, career advisor at Brown’s CareerLab. “They answered student questions about their companies and their career paths. Throughout the day alumni were ready to give advice about internships and job options, and encouraged follow up conversations. Brown alums are an incomparable resource for engineering students who want to develop contacts in their career field and explore careers.

After a welcome from Dean Larry Larson, Assistant Professor (Research) John Simeral gave a plenary talk, “Engineering the BrainGate Neural Interface System at Brown” which provided both students and alumni an insight into the cutting-edge research that the Brown Institute for Brain Science is working on and the incredible progress they have already made.

The day continued with two alumni panel sessions. The first featured advice on finding a job and included Chris Moynihan ’11 (Google), Madeleine Sheehan ’11 (Analog Devices), and Caitlin Ashley-Rollman ’09 ScM’10 (Microsoft).
“I definitely thought the career fair was worthwhile and thought that the panel of recent graduates was particularly interesting,” said biomedical engineering concentrator Courtney Mazur ’13.

That was followed by another alumni panel session that included James Truman ’02, Hector Inirio ’10, and Theo Doucakis ’96 ScM’00. This lively session, “If I Knew Then What I Know Now” provided a chance for the alumni to give some practical, real world advice to the undergraduates and again allowed the students the opportunity to ask the panelists questions.

After that, several alumni gave brief presentations on their companies and their current positions. Included among the presenters were: Melissa Loureiro ’07 ScM’08 (Hamilton Sundstrand), Adam Greenbaum ’08 ScM’09 (Draper Labs), David Perlmutter ’09, Chris Coleman ’11 (Oracle), Chris Hoffman ’09 (DPR Construction), Nick Sarro ’08 (DPR Contruction), Nick Vina ’10 (DPR Construction), Lorenzo Majno ’79, ScM’81 (Instron), and Dave Durfee ’80 ScM’87 PhD’92 (Bay Computer Associates).

Following an afternoon break, there was a chance for students and alumni to interact one-on-one. Each company set up a table and students were able to network with the alumni and talk about job and internship opportunities at each company.    

“The first annual career fair was a success,” said Professor Karen Haberstroh ’95. “It proved to be an excellent opportunity for current engineering students and faculty to network with alums - both in terms of internship and job placement possibilities, but also as a mechanism for reconnecting engineering alums with the new School of Engineering.” 

Following the networking opportunities, students were able to participate in two workshops. Ehrich led a workshop on technical interviewing with assistance from recent alumni, while Durfee led resume workshop.

“The career fair did a great job at fulfilling its designed purpose of connecting students with employers,” said Durfee. “But, in addition, I personally really enjoyed reconnecting with the alumni and could tell that they enjoyed sharing their time (and a meal) together with the students and faculty.”

Brown Professor Kyung-Suk Kim PhD’80 to Receive 2012 Engineering Science Medal from SES

Brown University School of Engineering Professor Kyung-Suk Kim PhD ’80 will receive the 2012 Engineering Science Medal from the Society of Engineering Science (SES). The prize is awarded in recognition of a singularly important contribution to engineering science. Professor Kim will receive his award during the 49th Annual Technical Meeting of the Society of Engineering Science to be held at Georgia Institute of Technology from October 9-12, 2012. The Society of Engineering Science has only awarded the Engineering Science Medal eight previous times since its inception in 1987.

“This is a tremendous and well-deserved honor for Professor Kim,” said Dean Larry Larson. “As both a Brown Engineering alumnus and professor we are extremely proud of his accomplishments and look forward to his continued contributions to the field.”

Professor Kim receives the prize for his singularly important contributions to experimental micro and nano-mechanics. These include his inventions of transverse displacement interferometer for high strain rate combined normal and shearing load, stress intensity tracer for time dependent fracture testing, Moiré interferometry for finite displacement measurement at the micro and nano-length scales, field projection methods to extract cohesive laws, residual stress measurements via chemical etching, high resolution TEM analysis to extract near atomic resolution constitutive laws and extension of the AFM range to measure the size scaling in contact and adhesion.

Professor Kim received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Seoul National University of Korea in 1974 and 1976, respectively, and his Ph.D. from Brown University in 1980.  He worked on the faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1980-1989 before returning to Brown as Professor of Engineering in 1989. He is currently the director of Nano and Micromechanics Laboratory in the Mechanics of Solids and Structures Group in the School of Engineering at Brown University.

About the Society of Engineering Science
Founded in 1963, the Society of Engineering Science (SES) was established to promote the free exchange of information on all aspects of engineering science and to provide a forum for discussion, education, and recognition of the talents of the engineering science community. Since its founding in 1963, the SES has established its reputation as the most vibrant and relevant technical society to promote the field of engineering science, where science and engineering meet. The annual technical meetings organized by SES bring leading engineers, scientists and mathematicians from around the world together to tackle some of the most challenging problems at the interface between engineering, sciences and mathematics.

Brown Professor Huajian Gao Elected to the National Academy of Engineering

Huajian Gao, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering at Brown University, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). Gao, honored for contributions to micromechanics of thin films and hierarchically structured materials, is one of 66 new members and 10 foreign associates elected, and is one of just 2,254 U.S. members and 206 foreign associates in the NAE.

Election to the National Academy of Engineering is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to "engineering research, practice, or education, including, where appropriate, significant contributions to the engineering literature," and to the "pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to engineering education."

Professor Gao becomes the fifth member of the Brown School of Engineering faculty to be elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He joins Rush C. Hawkins University Professor Rod Clifton (elected 1989), Professor Emeritus L.B. Freund (elected 1994), Professor Emeritus Alan Needleman (elected 2000), and Vice President for Research and Otis Randall University Professor Clyde Briant (elected 2010).

"This is a spectacular professional achievement for Professor Gao and we are extremely happy for him," said Dean Larry Larson. "To have five members of the National Academy within a faculty of 40 also underscores the strength and level of accomplishment of our faculty here at Brown.”

Professor Gao received his B.S. degree from Xian Jiaotong University of China in 1982, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering science from Harvard University in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He served on the faculty of Stanford University between 1988 and 2002, where he was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1994 and to full professor in 2000. He was appointed as Director and Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, Germany between 2001 and 2006. He joined Brown University in 2006. Professor Gao has a background in applied mechanics and engineering science. He has more than 25 years of research experience and more than 300 publications to his credit.

Professor Gao’s research group is generally interested in understanding the basic principles that control mechanical properties and behaviors of both engineering and biological systems. His current research includes studies of how metallic and semiconductor materials behave in thin film and nanocrystalline forms, and how biological materials such as bones, geckos, and cells achieve their mechanical robustness through structural hierarchy.

Brown Engineering Alumna Jeanie Ward-Waller ’04 Bicycling Across the Country for Safe Routes

Jeanie Ward-Waller ’04, a Brown University civil engineering alumna, is bicycling across the country as part of an advocacy campaign to raise awareness for safe routes. Her journey began on February 5 in Key West and will cover approximately 5,500 miles and take three months before concluding in San Francisco on April 28.

Ward-Waller, 29, who organized the trip, will be riding with her mother, 60-year physican Dr. Jane Ward, her 22-year old sister Chelsea Ward-Waller, and 26-year old friend Stephanie Palmer. These four women will be promoting the critical need for bike- and pedestrian-friendly streets in the sustainable communities of the future through public events in the 30 cities along their route.

They will also be meeting with local bicycle advocates along the way to combine efforts to raise awareness for bike safety in their local communities. In addition, they are fundraising for the League of American Bicyclists and Safe Routes to School National Partnership, two non-profits working for bike-friendly communities nationwide. For more information, or to follow their journey, please go to their website at www.rideforsaferoutes.com or follow them on Twitter @Ride4SafeRoutes

Jeanie Ward-Waller is a civil engineer currently based in Washington, D.C. She recently completed a master’s degree in engineering for sustainable development with a thesis investigating methods to promote higher rates of cycling in US cities. Also passionate about getting kids outdoors and active, she took a break from engineering in 2011 to teach environmental education at the Mountain Institute in the mountains of West Virginia and to teach rock climbing in the D.C. area. A 2-time Ironman triathlete, she has spent countless hours in the saddle on unsafe and unfriendly roads, growing increasingly frenetic about making roads safe for all cyclists.

Professor Kyung-Suk Kim melds engineering with history and humanities

“The West had William Tell and the East had Yang Man-Choon in Korea”

When Kyung-Suk Kim, a renowned Korean-American scientist and professor of mechanical engineering at Brown University, says this in his class Dynamics and Vibrations, a required course for engineering students, students are generally puzzled.

Yang was the legendary lord of Ansi Castle in Korea’s ancient dynasty of Goguryeo. He has been known to hit Emperor Taizong of the Chinese Tang Dynasty with an arrow in 645 A.D., when Tang invaded Goguryeo.

Kim`s students, however, pay attention to his lecture that combines history with physics and mechanical engineering if he says, “I will explain the principle of bow’s operations in a mechanical engineering point of view. The Korean bow is considered to be the best in the world from an engineering perspective, which you can confirm through experiments.”

Since 1989, Kim has taught mechanical engineering at Brown University, a prestigious Ivy League university in the U.S., with a laboratory text he wrote himself. More than 1,000 students have attended his lectures and 25 students have completed doctoral and postdoctoral studies under his advising over the years. Indeed, Kim has played the role of missionary for the promotion of Korea`s scientific excellence in its culture.

Speaking to the Dong-A Ilbo, a Korean news paper, over the phone Sunday, he said, “In the early 1990s, Brown University suggested me to develop a laboratory for engineering students that reflects some aspects of humanities and history. So I began working on developing such laboratory courses that bring in scientific excellence of Korean culture.”

Through experiments, Kim and his students have unveiled the secret of an ancient Korean bow that flies arrows up to nearly 1 kilometer, twice and three times the range of British and Japanese bows, though the bowstring is just 120 centimeters, shorter than Britain`s (180 centimeters) and Japan’s (2 meters). Kim showed that the Korean bow has a thrust of double pushes while launched, analogous to the thrust of a two-staged rocket.

Many had thought Korean bowstrings too short since Koreans have small frames. Kim, however, said the short bowstring creates great impellent power by the double-push mechanism and Korean bows bend to increase such power.

After completing graduate studies at Seoul National University, Kim went to the U.S. in 1976 for his PhD. He joined the Brown faculty in 1989 as a full professor. As the Director of the Nano and Micro Mechanics Laboratory at Brown, he received world attention last year with an article on the principle of precisely cutting carbon nano tubes using ultrasonic waves, written jointly with his collaborators at the Korean Institute of Science and Technology. The article was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, London.

- Courtesy of the Dong-A Ilbo (Korea)

Biochip measures glucose in saliva, not blood

Engineers at Brown University have designed a biological device that can measure glucose concentrations in human saliva. The technique could eliminate the need for diabetics to draw blood to check their glucose levels. The biochip uses plasmonic interferometers and could be used to measure a range of biological and environmental substances. Results are published in Nano Letters.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — For the 26 million Americans with diabetes, drawing blood is the most prevalent way to check glucose levels. It is invasive and at least minimally painful. Researchers at Brown University are working on a new sensor that can check blood sugar levels by measuring glucose concentrations in saliva instead.

Tripping the light fantastic Each plasmonic interferometer -thousands of themper square millimeter - consists of a slit flanked by
two grooves etched in a silver metal film. The
schematic shows glucose molecules "dancing" on the
sensor surface illumniated by light with different colors.
Changes in light intensity transmitted through the slit
of each plasmonic interferometer yield information
about the concentration of glucose molecules in solution.Credit: Domenico Pacifici

The technique takes advantage of a convergence of nanotechnology and surface plasmonics, which explores the interaction of electrons and photons (light). The engineers at Brown etched thousands of plasmonic interferometers onto a fingernail-size biochip and measured the concentration of glucose molecules in water on the chip. Their results showed that the specially designed biochip could detect glucose levels similar to the levels found in human saliva. Glucose in human saliva is typically about 100 times less concentrated than in the blood.

“This is proof of concept that plasmonic interferometers can be used to detect molecules in low concentrations, using a footprint that is ten times smaller than a human hair,” said Domenico Pacifici, assistant professor of engineering and lead author of the paper published in Nano Letters, a journal of the American Chemical Society.

The technique can be used to detect other chemicals or substances, from anthrax to biological compounds, Pacifici said, “and to detect them all at once, in parallel, using the same chip.”

To create the sensor, the researchers carved a slit about 100 nanometers wide and etched two 200 nanometer-wide grooves on either side of the slit. The slit captures incoming photons and confines them. The grooves, meanwhile, scatter the incoming photons, which interact with the free electrons bounding around on the sensor’s metal surface. Those free electron-photon interactions create a surface plasmon polariton, a special wave with a wavelength that is narrower than a photon in free space. These surface plasmon waves move along the sensor’s surface until they encounter the photons in the slit, much like two ocean waves coming from different directions and colliding with each other. This “interference” between the two waves determines maxima and minima in the light intensity transmitted through the slit. The presence of an analyte (the chemical being measured) on the sensor surface generates a change in the relative phase difference between the two surface plasmon waves, which in turns causes a change in light intensity, measured by the researchers in real time.

“The slit is acting as a mixer for the three beams — the incident light and the surface plasmon waves,” Pacifici said.

The engineers learned they could vary the phase shift for an interferometer by changing the distance between the grooves and the slit, meaning they could tune the interference generated by the waves. The researchers could tune the thousands of interferometers to establish baselines, which could then be used to accurately measure concentrations of glucose in water as low as 0.36 milligrams per deciliter.

“It could be possible to use these biochips to carry out the screening of multiple biomarkers for individual patients, all at once and in parallel, with unprecedented sensitivity,” Pacifici said.

The engineers next plan to build sensors tailored for glucose and for other substances to further test the devices. “The proposed approach will enable very high throughput detection of environmentally and biologically relevant analytes in an extremely compact design. We can do it with a sensitivity that rivals modern technologies,” Pacifici said.

Tayhas Palmore, professor of engineering, is a contributing author on the paper. Graduate students Jing Feng (engineering) and Vince Siu (biology), who designed the microfluidic channels and carried out the experiments, are listed as the first two authors on the paper. Other authors include Brown engineering graduate student Steve Rhieu and undergraduates Vihang Mehta, Alec Roelke.

The National Science Foundation and Brown (through a Richard B. Salomon Faculty Research Award) funded the research.

- by Richard Lewis

Brown School of Engineering to Host a One-Day Planetary MicroRover Workshop

On February 16, 2012, MicroRover will be hosted by the Brown University School of Engineering (Barus and Holley Room 190). MicroRover continues our Space Horizons series of intense one-day workshops, this year bringing planetary researchers together with engineering innovators to discuss the design and application of microvehicles to planetary science missions.

The majority of rovers sent to other planets have offered significant mission utility by deploying multiple-instrument packages.  On the other hand, rovers are becoming increasingly large and complex with longer development times and higher engineering costs. This leads directly to greater risk-aversion that easily spirals into even higher costs and increasing risk-aversion.  With so much riding on each mission, 'safe' landing sites must be selected with exceeding care and ongoing operations undertaken with ever-greater caution at every juncture -- thereby limiting exploration opportunities.

Smaller rovers may offer less capability individually, yet may also provide this utility with far less cost and risk exposure, particularly if large numbers are deployed.  In particular, advantages may include:

• Unit costs that are lower due to simpler designs and the economies of higher production volumes.
• More than one point of interest can be studied simultaneously.
• Instruments may be distributed among specialized vehicles that work together.
• Spare rovers can be kept in reserve during a mission, allowing consideration of higher risk operations.
• A larger rover might act as a "mother ship" to transport families of microrovers to new sites of interest.

Through formal presentations, presenter Q & A, expert panels and informal venues, our workshop will stimulate a wide variety of discussions on topics relevant to the subject of microrover development and mission applications.

Participation is limited to 50. There is no formal registration process or fee for students and faculty of Brown University, and we ask only that you contact us ahead of time to ensure that there will be sufficient space.  Planetary researchers and robotics engineers from other institutions are invited to register online. Student sponsorship for overnight accommodation is available to student from other universities with sponsorship from the NASA Rhode Island Space Grant Consortia.

For additional information, please contact: Kenneth_Ramsley@brown.edu  or visit the workshop website at:
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Engineering/Workshops/Microrover

Christian Franck wins Haythornthwaite Research Initiation Grant from ASME Applied Mechanics Division

Christian Franck, an assistant professor in the School of Engineering at Brown University, has received a Haythornthwaite Research Initiation Grant, a new divisional award presented by the Applied Mechanics Division (AMD) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).

This new grant targets university faculty that are at the beginning of their academic careers engaged in research in theoretical and applied mechanics. Professor Franck was one of three recipients of the 2011 awards, along with Dennis Kochmann of CalTech and Xuanhe Zhao of Duke. 

“This is a well deserved award for Professor Franck,” said Dean Larry Larson, “and this grant reflects the potential impact of his research program. The mechanics program has been an area of historic strength at Brown and it is one that continues to remain vibrant with bright, young professors such as Professor Franck.”

Professor Franck specializes in biomechanics and new experimental mechanics techniques at the micro and nanoscale. He received his B.S. in aerospace engineering from the University of Virginia in 2003, and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology in 2004 and 2008. His doctoral research was on the development of a quantitative three-dimensional experimental technique for applications in soft biomaterials and cellular traction investigations. Dr. Franck held a post-doctoral position at Harvard investigating brain and neural trauma before beginning his appointment at Brown in 2009.

The Robert M. and Mary Haythornthwaite Foundation has been a generous supporter of the ASME Applied Mechanics Division (AMD).  The Foundation supports scientific research, primarily research in the field of theoretical and applied mechanics. Robert Haythornthwaite was founder and first President of the American Academy of Mechanics.

Robert Haythornthwaite, who grew up in England, also had a Brown connection. In 1950, he was award a Commonwealth Fund Fellowship and spent a year studying at Brown. After obtaining his Ph.D. from London University in 1952, he returned to Brown in 1953 to join the Division of Engineering at Brown before moving on to positions at Michigan, Penn State, and Temple.

23 Students Inducted in Tau Beta Pi at Brown

Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, inducted 23 new members into the Rhode Island Alpha chapter at Brown University on Saturday, December 3. Fourteen juniors were inducted along with nine seniors.

Among the 14 juniors elected were: Ross J. Browne ’13, Derek  Croote ’13, Eric C. Greenstein ’13, Kaan T. Gunay ’13, Mia M. Helfrich ’13, Steven I. Klurfeld ’13, Max Y. Liberman ’13, Visarute Pinrod ’13, Patipan Prasertson ’13, Rebecca R. Reitz ’13, Sahar Shahamatdar ’13, Jeremy R. Wagner ’13, Kasey A. Wagner ’13, and Adam D. Wyron ’13.

The eight seniors elected included: Anastassia Astafieva ’12, Natalie E. Bodington-Rosen ’12, Karine Ip Kiun Chong ’12, Kelsey J. MacMillan ’12, Henry H. Mattingly ’12, Emir V. Okan ’12, Alejandro Rivera Rivera ’12, Pablo L. Sanchez Santaeufemia ’12, and Reid T. Westwood ’12.

Tau Beta Pi, founded in 1885, is the second oldest Greek-letter honor society in America; the oldest is Phi Beta Kappa. While Phi Beta Kappa is restricted to students in the liberal arts, Tau Beta Pi is designed to “offer appropriate recognition for superior scholarship and exemplary character to students in engineering.”

In order to be inducted into the prestigious honor society, juniors must rank in the top eighth of their class and seniors must rank in the top fifth of their class. Graduate students who have completed at least 50% of their degree requirements and who rank in the top fifth of their class are also eligible to become candidates for membership.

The Rhode Island Alpha chapter is not only an honor society to pay tribute to outstanding students, it also provides a vehicle for these students to assume a role of leadership at Brown and to be of distinctive service. Tau Beta Pi members are active in engineering student publications, the engineering recruiting project, and in a variety of other organizations.

Professor Huajian Gao to Receive Rodney Hill Prize from IUTAM

Huajian Gao, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Engineering at Brown University, will receive the 2012 Rodney Hill Prize from the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM). The prize, which consists of a plaque and a check for $25,000, is awarded in recognition of outstanding research in the field of solid mechanics and is awarded only once every four years in conjunction with the International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM). The initial prize was awarded at ICTAM 2008 in Adelaide, Australia. Professor Gao will receive his award during ICTAM 2012 which will be held in Beijing, China, from August 19-24, 2012.

Professor Gao receives the prize for his deep and broad scientific achievements in basic solid mechanics and its bridge to other fields, which has re-defined the modern frontiers of mechanics research. His work includes fundamental theory as well as applications to materials science, nanotechnology, and bioengineering. His highly cited publications appear not only in the major solid mechanics journals but also in many high-profile, cross-disciplinary journals.

"I want to warmly congratulate Professor Gao on this prestigious and well deserved award," said Dean Larry Larson. "His groundbreaking work shows how the field of solid mechanics - an area of historic national leadership at Brown - can have an impact on fields as diverse as health care, the environment and information technology."

Professor Gao received his B.S. degree from Xian Jiaotong University of China in 1982, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in engineering science from Harvard University in 1984 and 1988, respectively. He served on the faculty of Stanford University between 1988 and 2002, where he was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1994 and to full professor in 2000. He was appointed as Director and Professor at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research in Stuttgart, Germany between 2001 and 2006. He joined Brown University in 2006. Professor Gao has a background in applied mechanics and engineering science. He has more than 25 years of research experience and more than 300 publications to his credit.

Professor Gao’s research group is generally interested in understanding the basic principles that control mechanical properties and behaviors of both engineering and biological systems. His current research includes studies of how metallic and semiconductor materials behave in thin film and nanocrystalline forms, and how biological materials such as bones, geckos, and cells achieve their mechanical robustness through structural hierarchy.

About IUTAM and its Congress
The International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (IUTAM) is an international non-governmental scientific organization belonging to the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU), which was formed in 1946 and founded in 1948, with the objectives to form a link between persons and organizations engaged in scientific work in mechanics and related fields, and to promote the development of mechanics, both theoretical and applied, as a scientific discipline.

IUTAM achieves this aim mainly by organizing international meetings to deal with scientific problems. An International Congress on Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM), including mini-symposia and pre-nominated sessions, is held every four years. It is organized by the Congress Committee, established by the IUTAM General Assembly.

Novel device removes heavy metals from water

Engineers at Brown University have developed a system that cleanly and efficiently removes trace heavy metals from water. In experiments, the researchers showed the system reduced cadmium, copper, and nickel concentrations, returning contaminated water to near or below federally acceptable standards. The technique is scalable and has viable commercial applications, especially in the environmental remediation and metal recovery fields. Results appear in the Chemical Engineering Journal.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An unfortunate consequence of many industrial and manufacturing practices, from textile factories to metalworking operations, is the release of heavy metals in waterways. Those metals can remain for decades, even centuries, in low but still dangerous concentrations.

Ridding water of trace metals “is really hard to do,” said Joseph Calo, professor emeritus of engineering who maintains an active laboratory at Brown. He noted the cost, inefficiency, and time needed for such efforts. “It’s like trying to put the genie back in the bottle.”

That may be changing. Calo and other engineers at Brown describe a novel method that collates trace heavy metals in water by increasing their concentration so that a proven metal-removal technique can take over. In a series of experiments, the engineers report the method, called the cyclic electrowinning/precipitation (CEP) system, removes up to 99 percent of copper, cadmium, and nickel, returning the contaminated water to federally accepted standards of cleanliness. The automated CEP system is scalable as well, Calo said, so it has viable commercial potential, especially in the environmental remediation and metal recovery fields. The system’s mechanics and results are described in a paper published in the Chemical Engineering Journal.

A proven technique for removing heavy metals from water is through the reduction of heavy metal ions from an electrolyte. While the technique has various names, such as electrowinning, electrolytic removal/recovery or electroextraction, it all works the same way, by using an electrical current to transform positively charged metal ions (cations) into a stable, solid state where they can be easily separated from the water and removed. The main drawback to this technique is that there must be a high-enough concentration of metal cations in the water for it to be effective; if the cation concentration is too low — roughly less than 100 parts per million — the current efficiency becomes too low and the current acts on more than the heavy metal ions.

Another way to remove metals is through simple chemistry. The technique involves using hydroxides and sulfides to precipitate the metal ions from the water, so they form solids. The solids, however, constitute a toxic sludge, and there is no good way to deal with it. Landfills generally won’t take it, and letting it sit in settling ponds is toxic and environmentally unsound. “Nobody wants it, because it’s a huge liability,” Calo said.

Novel device removes heavy metals from water from Brown PAUR on Vimeo.

The dilemma, then, is how to remove the metals efficiently without creating an unhealthy byproduct. Calo and his co-authors, postdoctoral researcher Pengpeng Grimshaw and George Hradil, who earned his doctorate at Brown and is now an adjunct professor, combined the two techniques to form a closed-loop system. “We said, ‘Let’s use the attractive features of both methods by combining them in a cyclic process,’” Calo said.

It took a few years to build and develop the system. In the paper, the authors describe how it works. The CEP system involves two main units, one to concentrate the cations and another to turn them into stable, solid-state metals and remove them. In the first stage, the metal-laden water is fed into a tank in which an acid (sulfuric acid) or base (sodium hydroxide) is added to change the water’s pH, effectively separating the water molecules from the metal precipitate, which settles at the bottom. The “clear” water is siphoned off, and more contaminated water is brought in. The pH swing is applied again, first redissolving the precipitate and then reprecipitating all the metal, increasing the metal concentration each time. This process is repeated until the concentration of the metal cations in the solution has reached a point at which electrowinning can be efficiently employed.

When that point is reached, the solution is sent to a second device, called a spouted particulate electrode (SPE). This is where the electrowinning takes place, and the metal cations are chemically changed to stable metal solids so they can be easily removed. The engineers used an SPE developed by Hradil, a senior research engineer at Technic Inc., located in Cranston, R.I. The cleaner water is returned to the precipitation tank, where metal ions can be precipitated once again. Further cleaned, the supernatant water is sent to another reservoir, where additional processes may be employed to further lower the metal ion concentration levels. These processes can be repeated in an automated, cyclic fashion as many times as necessary to achieve the desired performance, such as to federal drinking water standards.

In experiments, the engineers tested the CEP system with cadmium, copper, and nickel, individually and with water containing all three metals. The results showed cadmium, copper, and nickel were lowered to 1.50, 0.23 and 0.37 parts per million (ppm), respectively — near or below maximum contaminant levels established by the Environmental Protection Agency. The sludge is continuously formed and redissolved within the system so that none is left as an environmental contaminant.

“This approach produces very large volume reductions from the original contaminated water by electrochemical reduction of the ions to zero-valent metal on the surfaces of the cathodic particles,” the authors write. “For an initial 10 ppm ion concentration of the metals considered, the volume reduction is on the order of 10⁶.”

Calo said the approach can be used for other heavy metals, such as lead, mercury, and tin. The researchers are currently testing the system with samples contaminated with heavy metals and other substances, such as sediment, to confirm its operation.

The research was funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a branch of the National Institutes of Health, through the Brown University Superfund Research Program.

by Richard Lewis

Philippe Fauchet ScM '80 named dean at Vanderbilt School of Engineering

Philippe Fauchet ScM '80 will be the new dean of the school of engineering at Vanderbilt University.

Fauchet, currently chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Rochester, begins work at Vanderbilt July 1, pending approval by the Vanderbilt Board of Trust.

He graduated from Brown University in 1980 with a master’s in engineering. Fauchet earned his Ph.D. in applied physics from Stanford University in 1984.

“This is an important moment of transition for the School of Engineering,” said Vanderbilt Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. “Philippe Fauchet is already well-known and respected at Vanderbilt because of his accomplishments at the University of Rochester, and we anticipate great success as he brings his dynamic leadership to our campus.”

Fauchet will succeed Dean Kenneth Galloway, who is returning to the faculty at the end of the current academic year after serving as dean since 1996.

“The engineering school is getting a visionary leader in Philippe Fauchet to build on the impressive contributions of Dean Ken Galloway,” said Richard McCarty, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. “Philippe has broad experience as a researcher and he is a dedicated teacher and university citizen. I look forward to his arrival on campus with great excitement.”

Galloway disclosed to members of the engineering faculty last spring that the 2011-2012 academic year would be his last as dean. Fauchet was named his successor after a national search by a provost-appointed committee.

During Galloway’s tenure, research expenditures from external sources grew from less than $10 million to more than $60 million annually, according to Art Overholser, senior associate dean and professor of biomedical engineering and chemical engineering. The school has also experienced a steady rise in national rankings, facilities have been upgraded and outstanding faculty have been retained and recruited.

“I intend to build on the strong foundation laid by Dean Galloway and help the School of Engineering become a national leader that attracts the very best minds from the United States and abroad,” Fauchet said. “I think Vanderbilt can have important impact on issues including improving health for our aging population, energy production, the environment and security.”

Fauchet, 56, is the founder of Rochester’s Center for Future Health, where engineers and physicians work to develop affordable technology that can be used in the home. He is also the founder of the Energy Research Initiative, a university-wide effort at Rochester to coordinate and expand the university’s research and educational activities in all areas related to energy.

“With his considerable administrative experience and leadership skills, Philippe Fauchet will be a great fit for our School of Engineering and Vanderbilt University,” said M. Douglas LeVan, the J. Lawrence Wilson Professor of Engineering at Vanderbilt and chair of the committee that recommended Fauchet. “The range of his research interests is extraordinary.”

Fauchet has been the primary adviser of Ph.D. students in six different academic disciplines and is the author of 400 technical articles. He became the chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rochester in July 2010.

“I have known Philippe for some 27 years,” said Dennis Hall, vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate School at Vanderbilt. “His collaborative style, his record as a fine classroom teacher, and his history of personal engagement with productive research related to energy, health care, nanoscience and more, make him an excellent match and catch for Vanderbilt.”

Fauchet and his wife, Melanie, a nurse practitioner, have 13 children ranging in age from 2 to 22. Eight of their children are adopted and five are biological.

The Vanderbilt School of Engineering, founded in 1886, is celebrating its 125^th anniversary. It ranks No. 34 in U.S. News and World Report’s evaluations of engineering programs nationwide. While retaining its strong focus on teaching, leaders at the school have dramatically expanded its research component, with an emphasis on the development of technology that is useful and accessible to the general public.

“I am especially looking forward to working with other academic units at Vanderbilt and also with the federal and state government, industry and our alumni,” Fauchet said. “Together we can develop research and educational initiatives that will contribute to solve the most pressing societal problems the United States and the world are facing.”

- by Jim Patterson/Vanderbilt University News

Kipp Bradford ’95 ScM ’96 Wins Elevator Pitch Contest

Brown alumni and students had another strong showing at the sixth annual Rhode Island Elevator Pitch contest. The event, sponsored by the Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, was held at the Rhode Island Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (RI-CIE) and included 48 presenters.

The winner was Kipp Bradford ’95 ScM ’96, a Brown engineering alumnus and current faculty member, who pitched the KippCool Medical Cooling System, an ambulance-based emergency cooling system that could help improve the chance of survival for heart attack and stroke victims. According to Bradford, research has shown that cooling the body could reduce mortality by 50 percent. The device is currently in production and could be deployed in more than 35,000 ambulances across the country. Bradford and his company Kippkitts LLC took home the $300 first prize. Bradford described Kippkitts as a company that invents products that “solve problems that matter” in medical, engineering and design fields.

In total, four of the nine finalists had Brown connections. Two students from Steve Petteruti’s Entrepreneurship I class, Engineering 1930G, were also finalists. James McGinn ’12, a biomedical engineering concentrator, pitched JCD Wind, which aims to make seamless, high strength lightweight carbon fiber turbine blades. Han Lee ’12, a commerce, organizations, and entrepreneurship (COE) concentrator, pitched GLS Mobile Board, a solar-powered mobile display that will project on location-specific billboards, including the backs of trucks. Both of them won $50 each. In addition Brown student Brielle Friedman pitched BodyRox Fitness, a dance fitness company.

The contest required the competitors to pitch their business idea to a panel of six expert judges from the Rhode Island business community in 90 seconds. The contest is a prelude to the annual Rhode Island Business Plan Competition, which features more than $200,000 in cash and prizes. Applications for the business plan competition close on April 2. Winners will be announced on May 3. Please go to www.ri-bizplan.com for more details.

For the official RI Business plan release on the competition, please go to:

http://www.ri-bizplan.com/tabid/251/Default.aspx

For the Providence Business News story on the event, please go to:

http://www.pbn.com/adasdd,63073

Extreme Gingerbread Competition a Success

The Brown University Society for Women Engineers held its fifth annual "Extreme Gingerbread House Competition" on Friday, December 2. Twenty-one teams of three to five students participated. The designs ranged from the traditional to the modern, and included a rugby stadium and a house with a windmill.

This year, the teams were challenged to build earthquake resistant gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, icing, candy canes, pretzels, gummy bears and other supplied materials in a one-hour time period. Houses were required to be hollow with a maximum wall thickness of one inch, and had to exceed 6” x 6” x6”. The houses were judged both for aesthetics, and amount of time without breaking on a shake table.

Team six, the Band (Rebecca Corman ’13, Rebecca Reitz ’13, David Emanuel ’13, Yukun Gao ‘13), won the competition with a score of 64.67 (20.67 appearance score and 44 structure score), while team ten, the Competition (Dingyi Sun ’12, Bao-Nhat Nguyen ’12, Lingke Wang ’12, Mike Caron ’12, Anand Desai ’12), was close behind with a total score of 63 (13 for appearance plus 50 for structure). Team 17, who built a replica rugby stadium, (Emily Hsieh ’12, Zuleyka Marquez ‘15, Natalie Klotz ‘14, Marissa Reitsma ‘14, Blair Station ‘12), finished in third with a score of 62 (20.67 for appearance and 41.33 for structure). In all, only one of the 21 teams, team ten, survived the maximum time on the shake table.

Ares Rosakis Receives Eringen Medal from Society of Engineering Science

Ares Rosakis Sc.M.’80 Ph.D.’83 was awarded the 2011 A. Cermal Eringen Medal of the Society of Engineering Science (SES) in recognition of his sustained contributions to dynamic fracture mechanics and methods to determine stresses in thin film structures. Medalists for 2011 were announced at the recent 48th Annual Technical Meeting of SES at Northwestern University. 

Rosakis is the Theodore von Kármán Professor of Aeronautics and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at California Institute of Technology. He is presently Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at Caltech, where he previously served as Director of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories between 2004 and 2009. He is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received his BA and MA degrees in engineering science from Oxford University, and his Sc.M. and Ph.D. degrees in solid mechanics from Brown University.  

Rosakis has received numerous honors  including the Hetényi Award (1991, 2008), the B.L. Lazan Award (1996), the Frocht Award (2003), the Murray Medal and Lecture (2005) and the Harting Award (2007) from the Society of Experimental Mechanics, the Brown University Engineering Alumni Medal and the Robert Henry Thurston Lecture Award from ASME (2010).

Professor Thomas Webster Elected to College of Fellows of AIMBE

Thomas Webster, associate professor at the School of Engineering and the Department of Orthopaedics at Brown University, has been elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE). Located in Washington D.C., AIMBE is the leading advocacy group for medical and biological engineering and is comprised of some of the most important leaders in science and engineering, the top 2% of medical and biological engineers.

The College of Fellows of AIMBE is comprised of an exemplary group of approximately 900 medical and biological engineers. Founded in 1991, AIMBE has earned a reputation as a prestigious public policy leader on issues impacting the medical and biological community and is regarded as the preeminent voice in the field.

Webster received his bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, and his master’s degree and and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Professor Webster directs the Nanomedicine Laboratory which designs, synthesizes, and evaluates nanophase materials for various implant applications. Nanophase materials are central to the field of nanotechnology and are materials with one dimension less than 100 nm. Materials investigates to date include nanophase ceramics, metals, polymers, carbon fibers, and composites. Organ systems evaluated to date include orthopedic, cartilage, vascular, bladder, and the central and peripheral nervous systems.

His lab group has generated four books, 33 book chapters, 85 invited presentations (including tutorials), 215 literature articles and/or conference proceeding, and 245 conference presentations. Professor Webster has been awarded 11 full patents plus four provisional patents in his 11 years in academics (five years at Brown and six years at Purdue). His technology has resulted in one start-up company. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Nanomedicine and is on the editorial board of ten other journals. He has organized over 25 symposia at academic conferences. Dr. Webster was the 2002 recipient of the Biomedical Engineering Society Rita Schaffer Young Investigator Award, the 2004 recipient of the Outstanding Young Investigator Award for the Schools of Engineering at Purdue University, the 2004 finalist for the Young Investigator Award of the American Society for Nanomedicine, and the 2005 recipient of the Wallace Coulter Foundation Early Career Award.

Anastassia Astafieva ’12 and Karine Ip Kiun Chong ’12 Win Halpin Prize

Thanks to the generosity of Doris M. and Norman T. Halpin, the Brown University School of Engineering Executive Committee provides research awards for exceptional undergraduates. Projects are awarded based on how well they demonstrate the power of interdisciplinary thought in engineering science and design. This year's winners of the Halpin Prize for Interdisciplinary Senior Capstone Projects are Anastassia Astafieva ’12 (advisors Christian Franck and Domenico Pacifici) and Karine Ip Kiun Chong ’12 (advisor Shreyhas Mandre). Each winner will receive a $750 student prize and a $2500 research fund.

From Ana’s Nomination:

Right from the start, Ana showed a strong interest in the interdisciplinary nature of a biomedical engineering design project that lies at the intersection of electrical, mechanical and biomedical engineering. After several discussions and conversations with Professor Pacifici and Professor Franck, Ana began the groundwork on her project to measure hydrogel and tissue scaffold deformations under spatially controlled applied electromechanical forces. Her project builds upon concepts from chemistry, cell biology, materials science and mechanical and electrical engineering, and is a genuinely innovative and interdisciplinary project.

The design of her senior capstone project features an in-vitro test bench or assay to apply spatially controlled forces to tissue mimicking hydrogels and scaffolds in all three dimensions. The mechanical properties of tissues and synthetic implant materials are extremely important in achieving proper physiological homeostasis in the human body, which requires experimental techniques to quantify them. The last decade has urged the scientific community to develop in-vitro methodologies that are able to measure quantities of interest in three dimensions thus representing a more realistic in-vivo or body-like setting. While three-dimensional measurements are intrinsically more challenging that traditional two-dimensional data collection and experimental design, Ana has accepted the challenge to do just that.

She is in the process of developing an electromagnetic field assay to generate physical forces inside tissue-mimicking hydrogels. By applying a magnetic field similar to that in a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner to micron-sized magnetic particles inside a hydrogel, Ana will determine the three-dimensional displacements that these magnetic particles undergo. Utilizing her Newtonian mechanics and electrostatics and magnetism principles, Ana will be able to determine the mechanical properties of these gels and tissues at micron and nanometer length scales in all three dimensions. Thus, through her capstone project she will be able to deliver a powerful characterization tool to the biomedical and engineering communities to aid in the development of improved implant materials and artificial tissues.

From Karine’s Nomination:

Karine is a talented mechanical engineer interested in a variety of subjects with sound understanding of mathematics, physics and engineering. She came up with her own research program about six months ago, and has since not only demonstrated successful technical expertise in executing the research but also has managed to disseminate the results.

Karine’s project is about bio-inspired desalination. The largest source of fresh water on this planet comes from natural desalination of ocean water through rain. Artificial desalination using various technologies also provides a small portion of the fresh water humans use. Karine asked herself, how do we create rain in a small container in our living room, and came up with quite interesting ideas. Her first idea was the observation that plants are very efficient at evaporating water from the soil. Is it possible to design an engineering process that mimics plants in transporting and evaporating water? Karine's second idea for condensing the water was to mimic Namibian fog-harvesting beetles. Tiny bumps on the backs of these fog-harvesting beetles have a special surface chemistry that facilitates the condensation of water, and moreover forms structures that channels the condensed water straight to the beetle’s mouth. Karine brought both these ideas to her advisor as a proposal for her 2011 summer Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA). Karine’s proposal secured the summer UTRA and she demonstrated her technical expertise during the summer research. She carried out a computational simulation of a toy mathematical model to demonstrate the principle reason behind the efficient evaporation through plant leaves. This result has increased her confidence in the research program and she has now designed a set of microfluidic devices to test her result experimentally. These devices mimic the properties of the leaves, especially the distribution of stomata on a leaf surface, to assist evaporation.

Karine actively participates in the scientific community and disseminates her research discoveries. She presented a poster on this in the Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium at Brown, and is scheduled to present a poster at the New England Workshop on Mechanics of Materials and Structures. She acquired a partial travel grant from the American Physical Society to present a poster of her results at the annual meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics in Baltimore in November. The prize funds for the project will be used to experimentally test the principle Karine has discovered. The experiment essentially consists of subjecting the microfluidic devices Karine designed to air flow in a small wind tunnel and measuring the evaporation rate through each. Her prediction is that the evaporation rate will increase with the air flow but reach a state of marginal returns as the air speed is increased beyond a critical value, and this critical value is different for each of Karine’s devices. The results from these experiments can be directly compared with evaporation from leaves to check if the leaves are optimized for particular wind speeds.

Fifth Annual SWE Extreme Gingerbread House Competition

The Brown University Society for Women Engineers will be sponsoring its fifth annual "Extreme Gingerbread House Competition" on Friday, December 2, from 5:00 - 7:00 in the lobby of the Barus and Holley building on 184 Hope Street.

Twenty-two teams of 3-5 students and professors will be allowed to pre-register for the competition. Any additional teams that express interest will be placed on a waitlist in the event that a team does not arrive. If the team has not arrived within five minutes of the beginning of the event, their spot will be given to a team on the waitlist or a team that has shown up at the event without registering.

Each team will be supplied with two boxes of graham crackers, two Ziploc bags of royal icing, and a tray on which to construct their house. Additionally, all teams will be provided with an empty sandwich size Ziploc bag for taking the communal supplies. Foods such as candy canes, M&Ms, teddy grahams, shredded coconut, etc., will be kept on a central table. At the start of the one hour time slot of building, one member of each team will be allowed to take the empty Ziploc bag to the communal table and fill the bag with whatever supplies they feel are most valuable for their team’s house. All food items will be provided by SWE at the event; teams are NOT allowed to bring any of their own food.

The teams will have one hour to construct their houses out of the provided food. Houses should be designed to follow the criteria listed below:
- The house must fit on the provided tray and not cover the drilled-in holes.
- House dimensions must exceed 6”x6”x6”.
- The house must be hollow.
- The maximum wall thickness is 1”.
- The house must be glued/pasted to the tray; the house may not slide around the tray.
- The house should be designed to withstand earthquakes.

Teams are allowed to bring any tools that they think will be helpful such as knives, drills, etc. Teams are responsible for bringing the necessary power connections/extension cords. If you plan on using tools, please ensure you know how to use them safely and plan on bring the necessary personal protective equipment, such as safety glasses. No chemicals can be used during the manufacturing of the house; the house and all its contents must remain edible at all times.

After exactly one hour, the teams will be forced to stop construction on their houses. The houses will initially be judged before a panel of three faculty judges on (1) Attractiveness of the House [1-10 points] (2) Novel use of Building Materials [1-5 points] (3) Use of Available Space (ie decorations other than the house) [1-5 points]. Additionally, judges will have the option to select one “wildcard” house after viewing all the completed houses. Judges will award a bonus of three points to the house if they feel that one house was exceptional in a way that was not represented in the other scores; this is optional and at the judges discretion. The sum of these components will be used as the team’s aesthetic score.

The second portion of judging will be on the ability of the house to withstand a simulated earthquake. The tray will be attached to a shake table and cycled through a regimen moving from a low frequency to a high frequency. After every 15 seconds, the frequency will increase. Time will start when the shake table is turned on, and will be stopped when part of the house falls off the main structure; this includes decorations attached to the house, but not “environmental decorations” that are simply on the tray. The final call on whether a house has "failed" will be at the judges' discretion. Houses will not be judged until tables and floors are clean.

After all the houses have been tested, the maximum amount of time on the shake table to make a gingerbread house break will be used to calculate the scores, as shown below:

          GroupTime
----------------------- x 50 = Total
Maximum Group Time

Total group scores will be calculated by combining the aesthetic score (out of 25 points) and the stability score (out of 50 points) for a total score out of 75 points. The team with the most points will be considered the winner. The team with the second highest number of points will be given second place and so forth. The top three teams will be awarded a prize.

When registering, each team will be asked to pay a registration fee of $6.00 to enter the event.

Nanowrinkles, nanofolds yield strange hidden channels

Wrinkles and folds, common in nature, do something unusual at the nanoscale. Researchers at Brown University and in Korea have discovered that wrinkles on super-thin films have hidden long waves. The team also found that folds in the film produce nanochannels, like thousands of tiny subsurface pipes. The research could lead to advances in medicine,  electronics and energy. Results appear in Proceedings of the Royal Society A.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Wrinkles and folds are ubiquitous. They occur in furrowed brows, planetary topology, the surface of the human brain, even the bottom of a gecko’s foot. In many cases, they are nature’s ingenious way of packing more surface area into a limited space. Scientists, mimicking nature, have long sought to manipulate surfaces to create wrinkles and folds to make smaller, more flexible electronic devices, fluid-carrying nanochannels or even printable cell phones and computers.

A subsurface system of nanopipesResearchers at Brown University and in Korea used focusedion beams to extract a cross-section of compressed goldnanofilm. When tips of regular, neighboring folds touched,nanopipes were created beneath the surface.Credit: Kim Lab/Brown University

But to attain those technology-bending feats, scientists must fully understand the profile and performance of wrinkles and folds at the nanoscale, dimensions 1/50,000th the thickness of a human hair. In a series of observations and experiments, engineers at Brown University and in Korea have discovered unusual properties in wrinkles and folds at the nanoscale. The researchers report that wrinkles created on super-thin films have hidden long waves that lengthen even when the film is compressed. The team also discovered that when folds are formed in such films, closed nanochannels appear below the surface, like thousands of super-tiny pipes.

“Wrinkles are everywhere in science,” said Kyung-Suk Kim, professor of engineering at Brown and corresponding author of the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society A. “But they hold certain secrets. With this study, we have found mathematically how the wrinkle spacings of a thin sheet are determined on a largely deformed soft substrate and how the wrinkles evolve into regular folds.”

Wrinkles are made when a thin stiff sheet is buckled on a soft foundation or in a soft surrounding. They are precursors of regular folds: When the sheet is compressed enough, the wrinkles are so closely spaced that they form folds. The folds are interesting to manufacturers, because they can fit a large surface area of a sheet in a finite space.

Kim and his team laid gold nanogranular film sheets ranging from 20 to 80 nanometers thick on a rubbery substrate commonly used in the microelectronics industry. The researchers compressed the film, creating wrinkles and examined their properties. As in previous studies, they saw primary wrinkles with short periodicities, the distance between individual wrinkles’ peaks or valleys. But Kim and his colleagues discovered a second type of wrinkle, with a much longer periodicity than the primary wrinkles — like a hidden long wave. As the researchers compressed the gold nanogranular film, the primary wrinkles’ periodicity decreased, as expected. But the periodicity between the hidden long waves, which the group labeled secondary wrinkles, lengthened.

“We thought that was strange,” Kim said.

It got even stranger when the group formed folds in the gold nanogranular sheets. On the surface, everything appeared normal. The folds were created as the peaks of neighboring wrinkles got so close that they touched. But the research team calculated that those folds, if elongated, did not match the length of the film before it had been compressed. A piece of the original film surface was not accounted for, “as if it had been buried,” Kim said.

Indeed, it had been, as nano-size closed channels. Previous researchers, using atomic force microscopy that scans the film’s surface, had been unable to see the buried channels. Kim's group turned to focused ion beams to extract a cross-section of the film. There, below the surface, were rows of closed channels, about 50 to a few 100 nanometers in diameter. “They were hidden,” Kim said. “We were the first ones to cut (the film) and see that there are channels underneath.”

The enclosed nano channels are important because they could be used to funnel liquids, from drugs on patches to treat diseases or infections, to clean water and energy harvesting, like a microscopic hydraulic pump.

Contributing authors include Jeong-Yun Sun and Kyu Hwan Oh from Seoul National University; Myoung-Woon Moon from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology; and Shuman Xia, a researcher at Brown and now at the Georgia Institute of Technology. The National Science Foundation, the Korea Institute of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea, and the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology of Korea supported the research.