Formula SAE Team Midyear Update

Brown Formula SAE Team Midyear Update: The front half of the car is put together, the engine dynomometer is up and running in Prince Lab, and driver training with Anthony Ricci of Advanced Driving and Securities, Inc. is going well. Check out the team video!

Brown engineer wins top prize at AIChE

Above: First Place winner in the Food, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology section, Allison Yorita.
Below: AIChE students (left to right): Andrea Jones, Lakshmi Madhavan, and Allison Yorita.

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering (CBE) students in the Brown chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers traveled to Nashville, Tenessee to compete in the student poster competition. Professor Joseph Calo reports that "our CBE students have, once again, made a terrific showing against some very strong national competition."

Our AIChE student poster competitors included: in the Environmental category a junior working with Professor Calo, Lakshmi Madhavan; and in the Food, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology category two seniors working with Professor Tripathi, Andrea Jones and Allison Yorita.

In the most competitive category "Food, Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology," out of the 71 best posters in the nation, our student Allison Yorita brings home the first place award. Indrek Kulaots reports that "the competition was the most competitive I have seen so far in previous years as long as I have been involved with AIChE."

Professor Webster's new patents and keynote addresses

Professor Thomas Webster will present at Family Weekend 2009 Faculty Forums, Saturday, October 17, 2009 9:30 A.M.-NOON

Implants Are Everywhere: Using Biotechnology to Improve Health - Thomas Webster - Times and locations will be listed in your registration packet. Seating is limited. Registration badge or Brown ID is required. To register and for more information, visit Family Weekend 2009.

NEWS: Two new patents issued for the Brown start-up company Nanovis, Inc. (http://www.nanovisinc.com/):

1. US Patent Application Serial No. 10/793,721 PLGA Substrate With Aligned and Nano-Sized Surface Structures And Associated Method
2. US Patent Application Serial No. 10/634,292 Nano-Structured Polymers For Use As Implants
Professor Webster will give two keynote addressess on Monday, October 19, 2009. One to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Wake Forest Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University (https://email.brown.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://pdc.wfu.edu/class/1120) and the other at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's NanobioTech 2009 (https://email.brown.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.alumni.rpi.edu/nanobio2009.html).

Addition to post:

One new patent will be issued on November 24, 2009:
US Patent Application Serial No. 7,622,129 Nano-structured Polymers for Use as Implants

The patent describes the fabrication process and benefits for using nanostructured polymers to increase tissue growth for a wide range of regenerative medicine applications.

Edible Car Challenge wtih Food Network coming soon...

Brown Engineering and Society of Women Engineers will again present the Edible Car Competition on October 30, 2009 at 3:00pm at Barus and Holley. Join us by creating your own team to compete or come cheer on the teams as they compete against the Food Network's Glutton for Punishment Bob Blumer.

The Glutton for Punishment show will highlight how Brown's green community participates in compost and usage of all food waste. We are looking forward to highlighting the strengths of our community!

To come test your creative skills and compete, email Holly_Lauridsen@brown.edu with your team of 3-5 people. You will then receive a list of complete rules.

Details from last year's Edible Car Competition:
http://today.brown.edu/articles/2008/04/food-car-race

Alumni Dr. George Thurston '73 will present on Asthma and Diesel Air Pollution

Diesel Air Pollution and
Asthma in New York City

Presented by
Dr. George D. Thurston '73
Dept. of Environmental Medicine
NYU School of Medicine
Nelson Institute of
Environmental Medicine

Friday, October 2, 2009
12:00 PM
Barus & Holley
Room 190
Brown University
182 Hope Street
Providence, RI

Presented by the Superfund Research Program - www.brown.edu/sbrp

Childhood asthma is at near epidemic proportions in parts of New York City, affecting as many as one quarter of all elementary aged children in certain under-served minority neighborhoods of the city. There is also an increasing body of evidence indicating that living near to traffic is associated with increased respiratory problems in children. Exposure to fine particles from diesel vehicles is suspected as a likely causal agent in these associations between traffic and asthma, but there is only limited information relating personal exposures to diesel particles and health for individual children. This seminar introduces both the asthma problem in New York City and the recent evidence regarding asthma and diesel air pollution, and then presents recent in-press results of a study conducted by NYU in the South Bronx that has directly tested the relationship between childhood asthma symptoms and personal exposures to diesel particles. Options available to control diesel emissions in New York City and elsewhere are also discussed.

Professor Allan Bower publishes new book, Applied Mechanics of Solids

Professor Allan Bowers new book, Applied Mechanics of Solids, comes out today, October 1, 2009.

Applied Mechanics of Solids summarizes the physical laws, mathematical methods, and computer algorithms that are used to predict the response of materials and structures to mechanical or thermal loading.

Topics include: the mathematical descriptions of deformation and forces in solids; constitutive laws; analytical techniques and solutions to linear elastic and elastic-plastic boundary value problems; the use and theory of finite element analysis; fracture mechanics; and the theory of deformable rods, plates and shells.

Over 400 practice problems are provided on a companion web site, as well as demonstration finite element codes in MAPLE and MATLAB. The text is intended for advanced undergraduate or graduate students, as well as practicing engineers and scientists. It will be particularly useful to readers who wish to learn enough about solid mechanics to impress their teachers, colleagues, research advisors, or managers, but who would prefer not to study the subject in depth.

An electronic version of the text can be accessed at http://solidmechanics.org and its also available from Amazon.

Knowledge-based economy in RI

Kipp Bradford (Engineering Sc.B. '95 and Adjunct Professor) shares his participation in Rhode Island's Knowledge-based economy.

Summer Insights

Brown Engineers were involved in a variety of worthwhile projects this summer:

or visit:
http://www.youtube.com/user/brownengin

Meet our new faculty

Engineering welcomed three new faculty members recently. Read more about them:
Sean Deoni
http://today.brown.edu/faculty/2009/deoni
Christian Franck
http://today.brown.edu/faculty/2009/franck
Domenico Pacifici
http://today.brown.edu/faculty/2009/pacifici

Audio Insights: Nanovis developing nanosurface technology

Listen to audio excerpts from a recent highlight interview with Professor Thomas Webster talking about his start-up company Nanovis.

Nanovis' leaders say, depending on the type of conventional implant, up to five percent can become problematic because the body rejects it, recognizing it as a foreign object because its smooth surface doesn't match the rough surface features of human tissue. However, the nanosurfaced implants Nanovis is developing feature a "roughness" that mimics human tissue, allowing the body to "accept" them. Webster says the nanosurfaced implants decrease infection, reduce the growth of scar tissue and promote the growth of healthy tissue. Listen

Using the same core idea of mimicking the natural roughness of human tissue, Nanovis is developing nanosurface technology for orthopedic, spinal, dental, cardiovascular and soft tissue implants. Listen

"It's a pretty exciting time for me as a researcher and a pretty exciting time for this mysterious sounding field of nanotechnology. There's actually real world application for this field—not just the nano iPod!" laughs Webster. "There are actual medical devices and real clinical treatments that can benefit from nanotechnology."

Testing nanomaterials for safety

"Scientists are preemptively testing the potentially ill effects of the tiny molecules and even atoms engineered at the scale of one billionth of a meter or smaller."

Carbon nanoparticles appear to be benign when fed to fruit fly larvae, but adults exposed to the nanoparticles in powdery form are not as lucky. Research led by David Rand and Robert Hurt show two varieties of carbon nanoparticles stuck to the flies, impeded them from climbing and ultimately caused them to die.

See full article at Scientific American:
www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=carbon-nanomaterials-bad-for-fruit-fly-coating
See Brown news release: news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/08/nanotoxicity

Tissue engineering research at Brown

Codirector of Brown University’s Center for Biomedical Engineering, Jeff Morgan leads a team of scientists who have developed novel ways of forming individual cells into living tissue. Some day, their techniques, in combination with stem-cell technology, could cure or lessen the suffering of diabetes and other debilitating diseases.

Strictly speaking, Morgan is a tissue engineer –– one of a substantial number of scientists around the world who are learning how to create groupings of cells that mimic the function of tissues or organs. Formed in the laboratory, these tissues can be transplanted into living creatures. Research is still largely confined to experimental animals –– but success so far in mice and rats holds great promise for humans.

Morgan’s advance is his unique method of growing and assembling individual cells into larger clusters –– what he calls the potential “building blocks” of tissues and organs that could be produced on demand.

More from the Providence Journal here:
http://www.projo.com/news/content/tissue_man_08-03-09_O4F81UM_v10.3b3bef6.html

Alumni develop sleep analyzer

In 2003, three Brown University undergraduates, Eric Shashoua, Ben Rubin and Jason Donahue, sat in a school cafeteria and mused about their grogginess after an all-night study session. They knew that the stress of exams played a role, but they started wondering about the science of their exhaustion.

Little did they imagine that their discussion would eventually lead to the founding of Zeo, maker of the first direct-to-consumer sleep device that analyzes nighttime sleep patterns. Zeo's product, the Personal Sleep Coach, uses a soft headband loaded with sensors to monitor brain waves. The data are sent wirelessly to a small device on a nightstand; from there they can be uploaded to the MyZeo.com Web site. MyZeo.com then analyzes the data and e-mails back a strategy and suggestions for improving the next night's sleep.

However, once these three would-be entrepreneurs decided to create a science-based aid for the estimated 70 million Americans suffering from chronic sleep disorders, they realized they were lacking a key ingredient: an investor--or several--to fund their research and development.

Initial fundraising began in the cafeterias at Brown. "We literally went table-to-table to talk about our innovation and get people interested in contributing," Shashoua recalls. Those discussions led to introductions to wealthy Brown alumni, experts in sleep research and so-called "angel investors."

More of the article on Forbes.com.

Indo-US Science and Technology Forum collaborates with Brown

Created in March 2000, the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF), established under an agreement between the Governments of India and the United States of America functions to synthesize collaborative research and promote substantive interaction among government, academia and industry. The overall goal of IUSSTF is “to provide opportunities, to exchange ideas, information, skills and technologies, and to collaborate on scientific and technological endeavours of mutual interest that can translate the power of science for the benefit of mankind at large.” (http://indousstf.org/) 

This Forum has a specific biomaterials area in which Brown University and Indian Institute Technology (ITT) Kanpur (along with other affiliated schools and companies) had a competitive proposal accepted in November 2008.  Co-Coordinator Bikramjit Basu of ITT Kanpur most recent visit in Phase I of this project was to fellow coordinator Thomas Webster at Brown University.  This July 2009 visit included many collaborative meetings and a talk on the biomaterials research in Dr. Basu’s lab.  The goals of these types of visits are to facilitate collaboration and increase their outreach potential.  A core deliverable of the project is to “train the next generation of scientists in the international interdisciplinary arena.” (http://www.iitk.ac.in/indo_us_biomaterials/)  

Dr. Basu explains, “This collaboration depends on the two way visits between researchers in the US and India.”  It is clear that these visits help researchers develop concrete projects. The dialogue between the different institutions and researchers allows for sharing of research results and a better understanding of the challenges faced by each group.  The biomaterials area specifically faces the unique challenge of bridging the gap between traditional biology and materials engineering.  The next steps for this project include working to integrate more industrial partners and medical professionals into the research collaborations.

Pictured above are National Metallurgical Laboratory Scientist Dr. S. Nayar, Associate Professor at IIT Kanpur Bikramjit Basu, and Associate Professor at Brown Thomas Webster.

Zia wins PECASE award

Rashid Zia, assistant professor of engineering, has been named one of this year’s winners of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers. The White House named the latest group of winners this week.

The PECASE award recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers who, early in their careers, show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge. It is the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on scientists and engineers beginning their independent careers. In addition to the recognition, Zia is expected to receive $200,000 annually over five years to support his research.

More of the Brown press release here:
http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/07/pecase

Breuer collaborates on bat research

An excerpt from a recent Forbes article:
Researchers at Brown University are three years into another Air Force grant, this a five-year, $6 million grant shared among five other universities, to understand perhaps the most impressive fliers of all--bats.

Unlike insects and birds, bats have long thin fingers that reach through their wings, and their wings are made out of an extraordinarily stretchy membrane. This allows them to twist and shape their wings in ways that other creatures can't, and so maneuver quickly and accurately through tight spaces like caves. They can take off almost vertically from the ground and they can take off hanging upside down.

"Nature does many, many things we don't know how to do in engineering," laments Kenneth Breuer, an engineering professor at Brown and the principal investigator on the Air Force grant.

Breuer and his Brown colleague Sharon Swartz, an evolutionary biologist, put bats in wind tunnels and study how they move their wings during takeoff, flight and landing. Using lasers that illuminate tiny particles in the air flow created by the bats' wings, the researchers study the turbulence created.

Bat research highlighted in Forbes on June 26, 2009.

Liu wins Acta Biomaterialia Graduate Student Award

Huinan Liu (Brown BME Graduate) was just selected as the Acta Biomaterialia Graduate Student Award winner for her paper:

"An in vitro evaluation of the Ca/P ratio for the cytocompatibility of nano-to-micron particulate calcium phosphates for bone regeneration”, Acta Biomaterialia 2008; 4:1472-1479.

Acta Biomaterialia currently has the 2nd highest journal impact factor in the Materials Science, Biomaterials category.

The award letter reads:
"The field of nominees was very impressive, and the task of selecting a winner was challenging. Not only did your paper demonstrate exceptional value to the biomaterials community, which was also evidenced by its download ranking, but your personal credentials and recommendations were also exemplary. We will present this award at the 2009 Materials Science & Technology Meeting in Pittsburgh in October."

Superfund renewed to create a safer and healthier RI

Brown's Superfund Research Program (SRP) brings together researchers from engineering, biology and medicine, geological sciences, and sociology to investigate human health risks of environmental contamination, and to design new technologies to mitigate those risks. The grant amount is $15.4 million over a period of five years (April 2009-March 2014). This new award serves as a renewal to our original grant, which began in 2005 and expired in April 2009.

The vision of the grant is to create a safer and healthier Rhode Island through basic and applied research, education, training, and community outreach related to health effects and remediation of chemical contamination. We have partnerships with the Rhode Island Department of Health, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, and many local community groups.

Here is the SRP website: http://brown.edu/Research/SRP/

Nanoparticles eliminate bacterial infection on prosthetic

Infected implants now have a foe. Brown University researchers have created a nanoparticle that can penetrate a bacterial-produced film on prosthetics and kill the bacteria. The finding, published in the International Journal of Nanomedicine, is the first time that iron-oxide nanoparticles have been shown to eliminate a bacterial infection on an implanted prosthetic device.

Press release here: http://news.brown.edu/pressreleases/2009/06/biotechnology

Resulted in July 9th Providence Journal story: http://www.projo.com/education/content/BROWN_CANNONBALLS_07-09-09_5EEVHR2_v9.3015298.html
Nano “cannonballs” bash infected implants
Patients suffering from infected prostheses may now have an ally in tiny “cannonballs.” The nanoparticles created by graduate student Erik Taylor and engineering associate professor Thomas Webster have been shown in lab tests to kill bacteria that congregate on implants.

Hydrodynamics of Microorganisms

Professor Powers' article, Hydrodynamics of Swimming Mircoorganisms, was accepted this week in Reports on Progress in Physics.
Preview the article here: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/652169/reviseLaugaPowersv3.pdf
Abstract.
Cell motility in viscous fluids is ubiquitous and affects many biological processes, including reproduction, infection, and the marine life ecosystem. Here we review the biophysical and mechanical principles of locomotion at the small scales relevant to cell swimming, tens of microns and below. At this scale, inertia is unimportant and the Reynolds number is small. Our emphasis is on the simple physical picture and fundamental flow physics phenomena in this regime. We first give a brief overview of the mechanisms for swimming motility, and of the basic properties of flows at low Reynolds number, paying special attention to aspects most relevant for swimming, such as resistance matrices for solid bodies, flow singularities, and kinematic requirements for net translation. Then we review classical theoretical work on cell motility, in particular early calculations of swimming kinematics with prescribed stroke and the application of resistive-force theory and slender-body theory to flagellar locomotion. After examining the physical means by which flagella are actuated, we outline areas of active research, including hydrodynamic interactions, biological locomotion in complex fluids, the design of small-scale artificial swimmers, and the optimization of locomotion strategies.

In addition, some of his recent work was highlighted on the NSF news page:
Scientists studying how marine bacteria move have discovered that a sharp variation in water current segregates right-handed bacteria from their left-handed brethren, impelling the microbes in opposite directions. This finding and the possibility of quickly and cheaply implementing the segregation of two-handed objects in the laboratory could have a big impact on industries like the pharmaceutical industry, for which the separation of right-handed from left-handed molecules can be crucial to drug safety.
More here: http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=114587&org=NSF&from=news