INNATION OV - Lawrence Technological University

INN ATIONOVTHE MAGAZINE OF THE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AT LAWRENCE TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

SUMMER 2021

Accelerating the future: A manufacturing business incubator gives LTU engineers new ways to learn. Plus: Audio engineering technology hits the right notes, LTU bridge expertise wins national recognition, and more

Summer 2021 Volume 13

Published by the College of Engineering and the Office of Marketing and Public Affairs, Lawrence Technological Univer-sity, 21000 W. Ten Mile Road, Southfield, MI, 48075-1058; 248.204.2200 or 800.225.5588, ext. 4; fax 248.204.2318; [email protected]; www.ltu.edu

Virinder K. MoudgilPresident of the University

Nabil F. GraceDean, College of EngineeringUniversity Distinguished Professor

Selin ArslanAssociate Dean for Undergraduate Programs

Elin JensenChair, Department of Civil and Architectural EngineeringInnovation Magazine Coordinator

Executive Editor: Bruce J. Annett, Jr. ([email protected])

Managing Editor: Matthew N. Roush ([email protected])

Writers: Bruce J. Annett Jr., Matthew N. Roush

Design: NetWorks Design, Inc.

Production Team: Pamela Houghton, Robin Leclerc, Sofia Lulgjuraj, Kristine L. Persinger-McKagne, Renee Tambeau

Photography: Justin Munter, Matthew N. Roush, and others

© 2021, Lawrence Technological University. All rights reserved. Comments about this magazine, articles, or letters may be sent to the Dean of Engineering. Send address changes to [email protected] or (fax) 248.204.2318.

On the cover: The Taubman Engineering, Architecture, and Life Sciences Complex is home to biomedical engineering and robotics engineering laboratories for LTU. It’s also home to a three-story-tall matte gray “orb” made of carbon-reinforced fiber, a groundbreaking use of the material in a structure. The “orb” contains the building’s central staircase and was constructed to float just above a reflecting pool.

Cover photo: Nic Lehoux

C O N T E N T S1 From the Dean

2 Accelerating to the future In 2019, LTU and the city of Southfield opened the Centrepolis Accelerator, a 6,000-square-foot business incubator in LTU’s Innovation Center. Unlike almost all other business incubators, this accelerator assists both startups and existing companies in the design of physical products—in other words, manufacturing— rather than software or apps. Nearly two years in, the Accelerator is proving to be a unique resource for LTU students to gain real-world experience in product engineering and design.

6 Have a (comfy) seat A team of Lawrence Tech biomedical engineering students is applying rigorous scientific methods to a pretty subjective question: Exactly what makes for a comfortable car seat?

8 LTU’s Audio Engineering Technology program hits the right notes

Combine an unusual academic model, LTU’s longtime “theory and practice” educational emphasis, and an audio engineer’s labor of love to turn an old church in Plymouth into a recording studio, and what do you get? LTU’s Bachelor of Science in Audio Engineering Technology (BSAET), which is supplying trained audio engineers—with the emphasis on the “engineer” part—to some of the world’s biggest and most influential businesses.

11 An engineer in charge of academics Meet Tarek Sobh, LTU’s new provost and chief academic officer, and learn about his vision for engineering education and higher education as a whole.

13 MDOT, LTU bridge research gains national recognition A decades-long effort by LTU and the Michigan Department of Transportation to double the lifespan of highway bridges has been recognized as one of the 16 highest-value transportation research projects in the nation.

15 In brief Analyzing problems with recycled materials in highways, research into “professional skepticism,” a laptop-sized TV studio, and more.

18 Faculty achievements Professional recognitions and research achievements of our faculty.

22 Student achievements Top prizes for autonomous vehicle teams, Formula SAE honors, scholarships, and more.

Back cover LTU adds two new academic programs in artificial intelligence and data science to respond to employer demand.

INN ATIONOV

I n n o v a t i o n | S u m m e r 2 0 2 1 1

Welcome to the 2021 edition of Innovation, the annual magazine of the Lawrence Technological University College of Engineering. New programs, new faculty, and new laboratories are the hallmarks of the college, this year and in the years ahead. Lawrence Tech is establishing two new degree programs that, while interdisciplinary, have engineering as their bedrock. A Master of Science

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the LTU College of Arts and Sciences. Classes toward this degree will begin this fall. Another new degree, a Master of Science in cardiovascular perfusion, will feature classes from our

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Two more faculty are being added in architectural engineering, and another in industrial engineering.

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dean, as well as those of Edmund Yuen, former chair of civil and architectural engineering, who is returning to the classroom. Lawrence Tech was established in 1932 as an engineering institute on the campus of Henry Ford’s

-try 4.0. This latest revolution is powered by explosive growth in the speed and power of computers, and

paying, and fascinating careers.

state of Michigan’s economic development efforts, and philanthropic support, all designed to help entrepre-neurs bring amazing products to the marketplace. Lawrence Tech is sharply increasing industry sponsored research, and is adding more advanced labora-

-tions against much larger, state-supported universities, while having the unique opportunity to participate in meaningful, groundbreaking research as undergraduates. All this is taking place against a backdrop of a devastating global pandemic that, as of this writing, has killed 21,000 people in Michigan. We adapted to this challenge with a blend of in-person and remote distance-learning modalities, but our students clearly voted with their feet, preferring face-to-face instruc-tion wherever it was offered. A testament to our students’ serious academic nature, we escaped the worst

Sincerely,

From the Dean

Nabil Grace, dean of the LTU College of Engineering, explains the university’s materials testing laboratory capabilities to a group of high-school students in this pre-pandemic photo.

Accelerating Accelerating Accelerating

2 I n n o v a t i o n | S u m m e r 2 0 2 1

Lawrence Technological University students and thousands of alumni have long been involved in manufacturing the state’s signature product, automobiles. But LTU’s “theory and practice” educa-tion also extends engineering exper-tise—along with manufacturing, design, and management skills—into industries ranging from medical devices to apparel to advanced energy technologies. So it’s a natural that in 2019, LTU and

Accelerating to the future

Business incubator for manufacturers gives LTU students, faculty a new way to learnWhat makes Michigan different

from other states? Well, there are a lot of possibilities—but for purposes of this discussion, it’s the fact that we actually make stuff here.

Centrepolis Accelerator, a 6,000-square-foot business incubator in LTU’s Innova-tion Center. Unlike almost all other busi-ness incubators in Michigan, Lawrence Tech’s Centrepolis Accelerator assists both startups and existing companies de-sign, prototype, and manufacture physical products—manufactured goods—rather than software, services, and apps. It’s supported by several state agencies and

So far, the Accelerator has assisted more than 200 companies in developing manufactured products. And students and faculty from the LTU College of Engi-neering have been actively involved.

The interdisciplinary team of electrical and computer engineering and industrial design students working on the novel game controller gathers—briefly, in these pandemic times—for a photo in the LTU Engineer-ing Building.

StarAgilis—next generation game controller and moreImagine a video game controller that you don’t need to hook up to a game console—it uses super-fast 5G wireless connectivity to connect to games online. To play, you just link it wirelessly to a smart TV, or a computer, or a virtual real-ity/augmented reality headset. And it’s not just a video game controller. It also

radio-controlled toys like cars and boats. All in a sleek, sophisticated, compact package. That’s the project that LTU engineering and design students have been working on with a startup called StarAgilis LLC, the brain child of a New Hampshire native now living in Hong Kong. That entrepreneur, Alex Downs, said he’s truly impressed with the LTU stu-dents and faculty he’s worked with. “The


Continued

Testing of the student designed prototype of the circuit board for the advanced gaming controller.

students’ ability to carry out cross-disci-pline collaboration between the industrial design department and the engineering department lead to a fantastic outcome,” Downs said. “This is exactly how real world product development happens.”This project, he added, “should make people want to go to LTU.” Lawrence Tech’s electrical and com-puter engineering students worked on the device’s electrical, mechanical, and packaging requirements, while students in LTU’s industrial design program bench-

marked existing control-lers, interviewed gamers about what they’d like in advanced controllers, and came up with proposed

designs for the enclosures. “The students from both departments had to work with each other as you would in a real company to determine design vs. engineering trade-offs,” said George Pap-pas, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, who supervised the engineering students with Nabih Ja-ber, electrical and computer engineering

also includes a connected virtual reality headset. Downs said his connection to LTU’s

As we are all far too familiar, this is what team brainstorming and reporting meetings looked like during the pandemic.


Centrepolis Accelerator was roundabout. Concerned that America was losing its edge in manufacturing and innovation, he decided to develop the device in the United States. His initial contact was through Select USA, a program of the U.S. International Trade Administration designed to encourage U.S. investment. That agency directed him to Automation Alley, the Detroit-area advanced manu-facturing organization, which directed him to Centrepolis. Said Pappas: “Alex wanted student involvement, and he reached out to us and we went through the project objectives.

From there, a group of my senior project students got really excited to do this for their senior project.” Pappas said the project’s potential stretches far beyond gaming. “This con-troller could be used in construction or civil engineering with augmented reality. It could be used in the medical and other

Downs said the goal of the device is to “take an Xbox and crunch the whole thing down into the controller. And now you’ll have an Xbox tucked into the controller that’s operating at 5G speeds.”

A cross-section of the design of one of the controller prototypes.

say, will reach up to 10 gigabits per second, a 20-fold increase over existing 4G technologies.

fall, work on the device will continue at LTU, Pappas said, producing more proto-type and proof-of-concept devices. “This is a great way for students to interact with the latest industry trends, building a proof of concept and getting it out there,” he said. “This controller gives you all the games at 5G speeds, plus you

cars. It’ll be a great product. One device, many uses.” Added Downs: “The students are quite high caliber and I’m very impressed. Many are avid gamers, so they understand the product. The students were really pushing the envelope and willing to take on challenges. And I was very impressed with the faculty support.” LTU faculty working from the industri-al design side included adjunct professor Chen Li and industrial design department director Bilge Nur Saltik. MR

StarAgilis is far from the only company the Centrepolis Accelerator is helping—with the eager aid of LTU students and faculty. Here’s a quick look at others.

Screen printable conductive inks could lead to real ‘printed circuits’There’s been a lot of talk about wearable electronics lately.A research project split between LTU’s Departments of Bio-medical and Robotics Engineering, originated at the Cen-trepolis Accelerator, is moving that vision forward. S3D Precision Dispensing Inc. is a spinout of University of Michigan research, but turned to the Centrepolis Accelerator and LTU to learn more about the printable inks that its preci-sion 3D printing equipment can print onto various substrates, from glass to plastic to fabrics. Yawen Li, associate professor and chair of biomedical engineering, supervised two LTU students, Bethany Balint, BSBME’21, and Faisal Akbar, BSME’17, MSMSE’20, in do-

ing a variety of tests on the inks.“The students did a lot of product development to develop

curing techniques for different kinds of conductive inks, char-acterizing them as to morphology, conductivity, adhesion, and scratch resistance,” Li said. The inks could be used to print actual working circuits on everything from hard plastics to bulletin boards, and it wouldn’t matter if the surfaces were flat or curved. The project began in March 2020, but was stopped from April to July 2020 due to the pandemic. It resumed in August and concluded in November. The students studied how long it took for inks to cure, how difficult it was to peel them off glass and polycarbonate substrates, and tested their resistivity and how easily they scratched. They also used LTU’s scanning electron microscope to determine how thick the inks were on the surfaces. Said Akbar: “Being a part of this project was a rewarding experience, especially under the guidance of Dr. Yawen Liand Dr. James Mynderse. I thank the S3D team for their con-stant support and working tips throughout the development of the project.” Added Balint: “This research project gave me


experience working without constant supervision, but guid-ance from Dr. Li, Dr. Mynderse, and the S3D team. Testing curing methods and the characteristics of the ink provided me with hands-on experience using equipment I had never previ-ously used. Presenting weekly updates to the S3D team gave me practice with presenting to a client as well as receiving feedback on needed improvements. I gained experience that will help me with future endeavors.” S3D CEO Mike Vitek said the project “worked out re-ally well. Lawrence Tech provided a lot of the foundational research that needed to be done, and we can use it moving forward in development and design of our future products.” Conductive inks that produce working circuits on various substrates have a wide variety of applications in “microcir-cuits, microantennas, microheaters,” Vitek said. “Imagine car door panels filled with 5G antennas, or microheaters embedded in car seats rather than large swaths of copper.”

MR

Qualified 3D: advances in 3D printing technologyQualified 3D is a 2019 startup from injection molding and machining industry veteran Pierre Viaud-Murat, who moved to the United States from Europe in 2015. The company’s name is its mission—it aims to take 3D printing beyond producing mere models or prototypes, into 3D printing of

industrial, qualified materials for production parts. The first candidates are silicones, thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) and thermoplastic urethanes (TPU) for life sciences applications, including endoscopes and medical pump seals and device housings. He also plans to provide consulting services for companies that want to bring new products to market, help-ing them develop processes to get parts produced at costs that can compete with injection molding. LTU’s Centrepolis Accelerator was opening in 2019 as the company was being launched. Viaud-Murat attended the grand opening and quickly became a client. “It’s a good place to get training and connect with people, sharing ideas and getting feedback,” he said. And the Accelerator’s high-end 3D printers and scanners help him demonstrate his product ideas. Viaud-Murat said he’s now working with “several LTU students who happened to be hanging out at the accelerator”on Automation Alley’s Project DIAMOnD, which stands for Distributed, Independent, Agile, Manufacturing On Demand, an effort to boost Industry 4.0 capabilities in the region. Viaud-Murat has also been in preliminary discussions with Ahron Wayne, MSBME’20, who is now working as an adjunct reseacher in biomedical engineering at LTU while de-veloping his own 3D printing and scanning technologies. The discussions center around high-speed photography of tiny 3D printed parts for quality control. Included could be use of the University’s environmental scanning electron microscope.

MR

LTU students Bethany Balint (left) and Faisal Akbar work in an LTU lab on determining the properties of conductive inks.

to sensor design to garment stitching to software development. The students are working with Lear, the

to develop a more realistic manikin suit

it with sensors to measure forces, such

discomfort. The students—Bethany Balint of Saline, Drake Barry of Oxford, Juan Jaramillo of Windsor, Ontario, and Brittany Wieland of Alexandria, Va.—are working closely with Eric Meyer, associate professor, and Michael Lancina, assistant professor, in LTU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering; and Lear’s Steve Gamache, BSME’92, engineering vice president; Missy Pereny, engineering

research scientist, on the project. The student team is developing mixtures of


xactly what makes for a comfortable car seat? Comfort is a complex concept for automotive engineers

and driving styles. A team of Lawrence Tech

students is assisting in measuring automotive seating comfort. This project spans a wide variety of engineering disciplines, from materials science

This illustration demon-strates the difference between the lower body of a standard crash test manikin and an actual human body—highlight-ing the limitations of using traditional manikins to measure seat comfort.

LTU students helping Lear quantify auto seat comfort factors

Have a (comfy) seat

EE

•••

The student

team is

developing

mixtures of

silicone that

more accurately

mimic the

human

buttocks tissues

•••


silicone that more accurately mimic the human buttocks tissues and will use it to pad the exterior of a butt-form manikin.

ample rump with a pair of shorts contain-ing various sensors. The forces will be recorded and analyzed by sensors running on a microprocessor board. The idea, they say, is to get a more con-sistent, data-driven picture of the forces at play in automotive seating, helping Lear develop an advance measuring system to understand what features in a car seat can make long-distance driving a joy—or an ordeal. The pandemic presented special chal-lenges for the student team, since much of the work was done remotely from their homes. “So far the most exciting part about the project has been combining all of what we have learned over the past four years at LTU in order to design and eventually

fabricate a valuable tool for Lear,” Jara-millo said. “The team has worked very well together, and we are constantly re-ceiving fantastic support from both Lear and our faculty.” Said Pan-Zagorski of the project: “Working with LTU students has been delightful. It is exciting to see the new generation of engineers apply their skills and knowledge to solve some of the much sought-after questions in the industry.”

MR

•••

The pandemic presented special challenges for

the student team, since much of the work was

done remotely from their homes.

•••

An illustration of an early prototype of the seat sensors being devel-oped by LTU students for Lear Corp.


Combine an unusual academic model, Lawrence Technological University’s longtime “theory and practice” educational emphasis, and

an audio engineer’s labor of love to turn an old church in Plymouth into a record-ing studio, and what do you get? The answer is LTU’s Bachelor of Sci-ence in Audio Engineering Technology (BSAET), which is supplying trained au-dio engineers—with the emphasis on the “engineer” part—to some of the world’s

The professors who created LTU’s program, its graduates, and employers all say it’s unusual because it didn’t grow out of a music school, but instead out of

how to mix music is integrated with the fundamental engineering knowledge of

“I think for me the biggest draw-ing point is that it was an engineering degree, and I was learning concepts that I could take beyond the audio and music profession,” said Caitlin DelVillano,

He said a friend studied audio engineer-ing at another university, and “it didn’t give him a strong experience in engineer-ing or production—you were basically

hands-on studio experience entwined with

me to work with electronics, audio, and

an idea, you could go into the lab, build

it, and make it hap-

Then there’s

program student, Brandon Wheeler,

started at LTU in

then switched to audio engineering technology when

he appreciates the technical nature and multi-disciplinary approach offered in the

program is that there’s a broad enough approach, with different kinds of experi-ences, so that you can go in a lot of dif-ferent directions, both in technology and

Students in the Plymouth Rock studios of LTU’s Bachelor of Science in Audio Engineering Technology Program learn how to mix music—and the electronics behind the sounds—under the instruction of lecturer Ben Blau.

LTU’s Audio Engineering Technology program: A degree that not only hits the right industry,


entertainment,” Wheeler said. “You can work in automotive, in music publishing, in audio forensics, in a studio. There’s so many different avenues you can choose.” One look at how different those three students’ career paths are shows the truth of that statement. Wheeler manages a team that designs car audio systems for

now owned by Samsung. Peplawski is now an engineer for Kyocera Internation-

team producing industrial video displays. And DelVillano is music coordinator for ESPN in Connecticut, where among other things, she organizes the music packages used in thousands of live sports events. Jim Little, general manager of indus-trial displays for Kyocera International, said Peplawski’s “background very much prepared him for what we’re using him

He’s a technical liaison with the sales manager for a region that covers about a dozen states. He does 2- and 3D CAD designs, works with customers to answer their technical questions, troubleshoots our displays in their applications. He as-

sists customers with every aspect of their design, from mechanical to electrical to software, and supports them after the sale.

willing to do whatever it takes to be better at his job.” That kind of work wouldn’t be possible if Peplawski had only studied acoustics, Little said. Diversity in career paths is very much intentional, according to Ken Cook, chair of LTU’s Department of Engineering Technology, and Chris Breest, director of the BSAET audio studio. The connection between the BSAET program and Breest’s Plymouth Rock Recording Co. started as the University was starting an audio engineering tech-nology program. Together, Breest, Cook, and an industry advisory board devel-oped a hands-on, engineering-centric BSAET program. This came naturally for them—with Breest’s audio and business experience, and Cook’s engineering and business background, the program started with a strong cornerstone in industry. BSAET students study physics,

Socially distanced classes in the spacious main recording studio of LTU’s Bachelor of Science in Audio Engineer-ing Technology program.

Students work in the newly renovated lower level of Plymouth Rock studios, a joint project between LTU and the studio’s owner, Chris Breest.

Continued

but the right music notes


calculus, economics, chemistry, electron-ics, embedded processors, software, and circuit design, in addition to acoustics and sound design. This provides them with a background not just in music produc-tion, but in the inner workings of studio equipment and the realities of the audio business. The proof of the program’s design came when Wheeler graduated and got a position at Harman. “That showed that the way we are doing things, immers-ing students in the industry, is the right approach,” Cook said. Added Breest: “To me, the most important function of any undergrad program is that it gets gradu-ates jobs.” LTU BSAET graduates are now working in audio systems compa-nies, auto suppliers, recording compa-nies, network media production, and the Detroit Big Three, among others. Looking ahead, the audio engineer-ing technology program is also planning

audio programming and audio forensics. The latter involves the use of the audio from security and police body cameras as evidence in civil and criminal litigation, as well as being able to identify “deep fake” video and audio that is manu-factured by increasingly sophisticated

technologies. Game audio program-ming, meanwhile, involves designing, inserting, editing and using audio creatively in visual software such as Unreal Engine for

use in augmented reality, virtual reality, and video gaming. This program provides ample opportu-nities for internships. “COVID has been a massive setback for those opportunities, but we’ve continued to place students at Panasonic, Bose, Rust Belt Studios, North

and the Detroit Three,” Breest said. The program also focuses on having adjunct professors who work in the indus-try. “Our students might be taking a class from a professor who could hire them,” Cook said. A video promoting the program and a three-dimensional virtual tour of Plym-outh Rock Studios can be found at www.ltu.edu/audio. Said Breest: “Our next step is letting people go on the virtual tour and be able to hit a snare drum, and have it sound not just like a drum, but exactly like that drum, in that exact acoustic space.” MR

Students in Lawrence Tech’s Bachelor of Science in Audio Engineering Technology pro-gram work on the latest and best industry equipment, because the studio where they spend part of their time is an actual working audio studio.

A unique touch at Plymouth Rock recording studios: the rest rooms aren’t men’s and women’s, they’re Fender and Marshall, two legend-ary brands of audio equip-ment. And the wallpaper is comprised of handbills from concerts, other events, and public notices in New York City, collected over the years by the artist who did the installation at the studio.


Continued

much more able to make fast decisions. I am actu-ally optimistic that this will teach institutions like ours that we should react fast to the market, whether that is in new degree programs, new

programs, and becoming

Some have decried that engineering can’t be taught outside laboratories. But Sobh said the pandemic gave schools like LTU an opportunity to use

can be set up at any time. “Arranging for a laboratory experience, or a tutorial, or a workshop, involving people being around—these things used to have limits because of travel limitations. That is no

Indeed, the trend toward Industry 4.0 technologies—where engineers monitor and operate factory machinery remotely—has only been sped up by the pandemic, he said. “Putting machines and robotics online, allowing students to program machinery and move it and do physical things with-out being physically in the same room,

in some cases there is no substitute for hands-on learning, the capacity issue has

numbers of students physically in a lab

enhance the capacity of our laboratories to accept more students because not every laboratory experiment has to be conducted by a large number of students physically present in the same place at the

And Sobh said this increasingly virtual

engineering educator. “In the last 10 or 15 years, because of what I do for a living—robotics automation and engineering edu-cation—I used to get 15, 20, 30 requests a year to participate in a panel discussion or

LTU names an engineer as provost, chief academic officer

Tarek Sobh

•••

“With every challenge comes an

opportunity for

innovation”•••

eEngineering education, like the profession of engineering itself, must broaden itself to include more interdisci-plinary education. And tomorrow’s students must be exposed at an earlier and earlier age to engineering concepts to prepare them for the jobs of the 21st century—and for the youngest among them, careers that may stretch into the 22nd.

notion that to be a good engineer, you have to be an absolute genius at math-ematics? Those are the thoughts of Tarek Sobh, an engineer by education and early career path, who last September became the

Lawrence Technological University. Sobh came to LTU in what the vener-able Chinese curse calls “interesting

-demic. But as effective vaccines put hope on the horizon, and a return to whatever

cautions against settling for mere normal.-

Sobh said the pandemic has challenged traditionally slow-moving higher edu-cation, which he said is “notorious for not reacting quickly to the market and not changing how it does business on a

our perception and modus operandi, not just in delivery modes, but in all the ways we do business. It has helped us become much more nimble, much more agile,


said. “Each of those events would involve travel for a day or two, and attending the event—I would be away from work for a week. So I used to be very selective in which I would accept. But now, in the last few months, I was able to accommo-date seven such invitations in a 10-week period, doing these events remotely. It’s

differences, the ones overseas are early morning or late at night. So I haven’t missed a minute of work (at LTU), and I’m also helping to advance education.” Looking ahead, Sobh said the “thresh-olds between disciplines are disappearing

intelligence. There are obvious applica-tions in cybersecurity and homeland

work done in computer engineering in LTU’s College of Engineering, but also in

and Sciences and the cybersecurity lab in our College of Business and Information

work as a mathematician, or a mechanical engineer, or an electrical engineer on mo-tors and feedback sensors, as a com-puter scientist on programming and sensor algorithms, or a computer engi-neer on user inter-face. In mobility, you can work in

computer engineering, materials science, chemistry, physics. Someone like me, a hard core engineer in robotics—I would never have considered that I needed to be trained in physiology and biology for applications like robotic surgery.” “The engineers of the future will be engineers who will be very comfortable getting outside their comfort zone,” Sobh summed up. “Degree programs and certi-

and taught between the business school, arts and sciences, design, and engineer-ing. The degrees of the future, the careers of the future, will require a breadth of knowledge in many areas to advance

comprehensive, doctoral, innovative, -

ative university of the future that ensures eminent high-paying professional careers for its alumni, a university that produces technologically savvy graduates no mat-ter what degree they attain, or discipline

university that prepares students for 21st century interdisciplinary careers and job titles that do not even exist yet!” MR

Tarek Sobh, left, checks out the A. Alfred Taub-man Student Services Center with Dean of Students Kevin Finn.

•••

“The engineers of the future

will be engineers who will be very

comfortable getting

outside their comfort zone”

•••

Tarek Sobh (right) tours LTU’s unique Center for In-novative Materials Research (CIMR) with Nabil Grace, dean of the LTU College of Engineering, and Mohamed Mohamed, left, a graduate student research scholar at the University.


Continued

Research on the advanced material led by the MDOT and Nabil Grace, dean of LTU’s College of Engineering, began in 2001, with the construction of the nation’s

have been built across the state, including

adds strength, but is prone to corrosion and deterioration under assault from

tensile strength comparable to steel, and

they resist corrosion and require less

understood,” said Matthew Chynoweth, chief bridge engineer and director of

conducted at LTU’s Center for Innovative

Materials Research (CIMR), which offers advanced testing equipment such

research project, Michael Townley, called the combination of Chynoweth, Grace, LTU’s laboratories and students, a unique

“Sometimes you ride on waves of innovation, and sometimes you make the wave,” said Townley, research project administration manager at the MDOT’s

case we’re really making the wave of

to build a bridge beam in a lab is a unique

students, and the laboratory has equipment that allows us to test the material

MDOT, LTU research into carbon

fiber bridges gains national

recognition

long effort by Lawrence Technological University and the Michigan Department of Transportation to double the lifespan of highway bridges has been recognized as

instead of steel as a reinforcing material in concrete bridges was named to the “Sweet 16” top projects of 2020 by the

Concrete beams reinforced with carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) rope instead of steel bars are installed on a bridge over I-75 in Detroit.


under extreme conditions. We’re grate-ful to Lawrence Tech for helping us be innovators and improve Michigan’s infrastructure.”

what proponents of CFRP have long theorized. Investigators found that CFRP strands held up well to conditions that simulated Michigan’s harsh weather. Moisture, rain, freezing rain, and extreme

affect the material’s strength or mechani-cal properties over time. In addition, test

-cepted parameters for CFRP are conser-vative and can be updated. “We knew that it was a good material,”

a little bit more about long term durabil-

when it comes to standing up to Michigan weather and salt on the roads.”

the research goal is

a lot closer to that now,” he said.

stressed concrete bridge elements, and

The research also prompted a Japanese

-ship. The state has also installed sensors

-

Dean Nabil Grace of LTU’s College of Engineering shows off the univer-sity’s Center for Innovative Materials Research to Paul Ajegba, director of the Michigan Department of Transportation.

Matthew Chynoweth, chief bridge engineer and director of MDOT’s Bureau of Bridges and Structures, speaks at LTU’s engineering honors banquet in 2017.

LTU bridge research highlighted in MDOT video

The Michigan Department of Transportation highlighted its research with LTU on building bridges with carbon-fiber rein-forced polymer (CFRP) instead of steel in an online newsletter, adding a comprehensive video on the project. The five-and-a-half minute video points out that Michigan bridges must not only endure heavy loads, but plenty of freeze-thaw cycles and damage from road salt—causing premature aging and maintenance and replacement costs. The goal, the video says, is a bridge that will last 100 years with only minimal maintenance, and that’s where the CFRP mate-rial comes in. Thanks to a four-year MDOT study of the material at Lawrence Tech, the state has developed specifications for using the material in bridges. To view the video, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0g8JwHvvC0. MR

ing now in place to monitor the bridges

“measure movement, stress and strain, and send the data to a location where it

-dards. We’ve been monitoring the mate-rial since 2001, and it’s been doing well.”

MR

In Brief

LTU study relieves aggregate aggravation for MDOTI t started out as a noble idea—using re-cycled crushed concrete from old roads and crushed slag from steel plants as a base for our roadways. Using recycled material reduces highway costs and promotes sustainability. But the Michigan Department of Transportation observed that some drainage water from roads with a recycled concrete base was alkaline and had mineral deposits at drain outlets. Highly alkaline water is corrosive to metal and toxic to plant life. Enter a team from Lawrence Technological University, which investigated the issue and recommended treatments that will allow MDOT to continue using recycled materials, while easing environmental concerns about roadway drainage. After an initial 12-site study of its own, the MDOT called for proposals to study the problem and provide solutions that allowed continued use of recycled crushed concrete as base material. A Lawrence Technological University research team, led by Associate Professor Nishanthra Bandara was awarded the research contract, a $169,000, two-year project. “We expanded their 12 sites to 30 sites, and collected more than 400 samples over two years,” Bandara said. “I had two students who went out and collected water samples, brought it into the lab, and tested them for pH and dissolved solids, and we did some chemical analysis in the chemistry lab to make sure there weren’t heavy metals in the material.” The project also collected samples at the same locations and observed how they changed over the course of the study. Two undergraduate students collected samples at the outlets and 100 feet downstream during rain events, while two other undergraduates did much of the lab work. “We found that recycled crushed concrete had the highest pH value but that it decreased over time,” he said. “Slag ag-gregate did not have this problem—it is very close to natural aggregate, 7 to 8 on the pH scale.” (The pH scale runs from 0, highly acidic, to 14, highly alkaline, with distilled water a neutral pH of 7.) The study found that while the runoff was alkaline, it was below EPA limits. Nevertheless, the problems of mineral deposits and plant damage needed a solution. The LTU team offered several treatment recommendations ranging from washing the recycled aggregate before use, blending new and recycled aggregate to minimize alkalinity, planting hardy veg-etation at the drain outlets, and using pH adjustment products at the outlets. “Treatment options such as blending and washing lowered the pH value of the drainage water from the recycled crushed

concrete base and inhibited the formation of precipitates and thereby the mineral deposits at the drain outlets,” Bandara said. Co-principal investigators on the project were Nicole Vil-leneuve, professor of chemistry in the LTU College of Arts and Sciences, and Elin Jensen, chair of the Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering. Harold Zweng, environmental services section manager at the MDOT, called the project a success. “I was really happy with the way the research team, when they ran into some unexpected challenges collecting samples in

-rial they were testing,” Zweng said. “I thought that was a great innovation. And as they completed the project, they kept a really good focus on giving us some actionable recommendations.”

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‘Professional skepticism?’ Engineers need it too

A new research project to help engineers learn “professional skepticism” is under-way in LTU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. “(I’m) attempting to develop a model of professional skepticism for engineers,” said Michael Lancina III, assistant profes-sor. “This is a newly developed profes-sional skill that is only used in accounting where it is a measure of how likely an

-tion available to them.” Lancina explained that a model of professional skill is a list of attitudes and behaviors that someone with that skill would exhibit. Developing a robust model is important, he added, because a researcher needs to understand what being “good at” something means before it can be measured as a skill. “In the accounting model of professional skepticism they

an author needs before agreeing or disagreeing with data,” he

approach similar decisions.” Lancina said his theory is that engineers in regulatory or

of what a “skeptical” engineer believes or thinks. “Ultimately, I want to develop a test to quantitatively measure

prepare our graduates for these types of engineering jobs,” he said. The project kicked off in the Fall 2020 semester with a short survey sent to LTU faculty and students. KLP-M

..

Nishanthra Bandara

Michael Lancina III


studio that customers could place in a room that would include all the equipment necessary to produce professional-looking video—lights, camera, and a teleprompter. “It worked out OK, but it was just too big,” Newman said. “It was a very large box, it was heavy, 130 pounds, and it was expen-sive. We wanted to condense it down to the size of a laptop or a large tablet.” Through LTU’s Centrepolis Accelera-tor grand opening event in October 2019, Newman met George Pappas, assistant professor of electric and computer en-gineering, and described the idea. “Dr. Pappas thought they could work with us,” Newman said. Aaron Lindbauer, an embedded software engineering major, and Sameer Desai, a computer engineering major went to work on the concept as a senior project.

reduce its size but still keep it broadcast quality, and being able to maintain eye contact when someone is reading,” Lind-bauer said. “I thought maybe we could put a camera in the middle of a screen, but the way LCD screens work, you can’t drill a hole in the screen, it’ll ruin the whole thing. We looked at putting four monitors together with a small hole in the middle, but due to cost that didn’t work. We also thought up a transparent screen with the camera behind it, but that would also be too expensive. Right now, Sameer and I are working on a new idea where you have two webcams attached to the sides of a computer and use software to virtually stitch the images together so it’ll look as if you’re looking right at the camera.” The device will also include both wireless and wired internet connections and cellular service, “so you have lots of bandwidth so it never breaks up during a call,” Lindbauer said. The project is to be completed by the end of the Fall 2021 semester, when both students are scheduled to graduate. MR


In Brief

Grant will see small construction

Lawrence Technological University is offering free COVID-19 -

ployees under a grant from the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Susan Collet, BSME’80, received the University’s Alumni Achievement Award at its 2020 Commencement, streamed online Nov. 21, 2020. Collet is an executive engineer with Toyota Motor North America’s Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs division. She has 44 years of auto industry experience, including 25 years at Toyota. Her experience includes developing information for en-vironmental regulations, researching air quality and health effect trends, managing engineering projects, and developing

the Advisory Board for LTU’s A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering, serving as president from 2010 to 2019. She has served on many leading agencies, government councils, and commissions relating to her goal of clean, healthy air around the world, and her work has been published in leading professional journals. She received scholarships to attend LTU, and thus knows the important role scholarship support plays in student success. As a result, she has become a

generous con-tributor to her alma mater. She estab-lished the Susan & Gordon Collet Endowed Scholar-ship in 2009. BJA

are working on it

Two LTU students spent the 2020-21 academic year working with a Madison Heights TV production company on a laptop-sized portable TV studio with a teleprompter display that could replace bulky, heavy studio equipment. A teleprompter, also known as an autocue, is a display device that shows the text of a speech or script over a TV camera, so the person reading the script can look directly into the camera. That usually means a big screen, a heavy camera, and a large tripod, and can run upwards of $15,000. David Newman of KDN Videoworks Inc. said he’d been working on a smaller version of the device for years for a product he called My Broadcast Studio, a small portable TV

Susan Collet, BSME’80, with LTU President Virinder Moudgil

Continued

The heavy, expensive, and not-quite-so-portable unit LTU students are working on improving.

George Pappas

Aaron Lindbauer

The training is offered on the east side of the state by Ahmed Al-Bayati, assistant professor of civil and architec-tural engineering at LTU. The $24,980 MIOSHA grant funded two-hour COVID-19 safety training ses-sions that can be in-person or online, as well as an online seminar that multiple

have limited resources, and limited funds and budget, to cre-ate and implement an effective safety program,” Al-Bayati said. “This free training will enable them to improve their overall safety performance. It’s very good of MIOSHA to try

Under the grant, Al-Bayati provides training on the east side of the state, while safety consultant Bruce Ladewski of Kalamazoo provides training on the west side of the state.Auxiliary aids, services, and other accommodations are available, upon prior request, to individuals with disabilities. Training is available through August 2021. Al-Bayati has more than 10 years of experience in the construction industry in diverse roles, from safety coordinator to site engineer. His research focuses on construction safety, specializing in safety climate and safety culture, as well as construction process optimization to minimize underground utility strikes. He has published more than a dozen scholarly papers in peer-reviewed academic journals. MR

ASHRAE grants become national presentation, classroom demonstrationTwo grants to LTU from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Engineers wrapped up in the 2020-21 academic year, delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

of Liping Liu, associate professor of mechanical, robotics, and industrial engineering, evaluate the impact of ASHRAE

comfort, the environment, industry and commerce, and edu-cation and professional training. Liu made a presentation on the work at the ASHRAE 2021 virtual winter conference, and is working with the students

“The major goals were to describe the contribution ASHRAE and its standards made to society,” Liu said. “A secondary goal was to assess the impact and value of ASHRAE standards.”


Ahmed Al-Bayati

LTU students’ presentation on the classroom heat exchanger project, taped in 2020, was featured at the ASHRAE 2021 Virtual Winter Conference.

The second ASHRAE-funded effort was a senior design proj-

exchange unit to show how such systems work for classroom demonstrations. The project was to have been concluded in May 2020, but due to the loss of access to laboratories caused by the pandemic, the project extended into the Fall 2020 semester. “Heat exchangers are usually bigger systems because you

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courses. Students can see demonstrations, collect data, and do calculations based on what they have learned.” MR

The completed heat exchanger assembly funded by an ASHRAE grant.

Improved robotics lab takes shape: An expanded robotics lab is on the way for LTU’s robotics engineering pro-gram, with equipment and software from both Kuka Robotics and Rockwell Automation, with assistance from McNaughton McKay Electric Co. The lab is being designed to be a real-world representation of how robots work in industrial automation, including full control and sensing technologies. MR

Dean Frasch closes long career

A ssociate Dean of Engi-neering Lewis G. Frasch has retired and been named professor of engineering emeritus. Dean Frasch joined LTU’s engineering faculty in 1984 and was named interim associate dean in 2006 and associate dean in 2007. He holds degrees from The Ohio State University and Iowa State University. Prior to joining Lawrence Tech he worked in private practice. Said Frasch of his years at LTU: “One of the great gifts the Lord has given me in my life is my career at Lawrence Tech. To serve in an organization with a good and important mission, and to serve with people I greatly respect, is all I could have ever asked.” Frasch had a wide variety of responsibilities as associate dean, including overseeing non-budgetary day-to-day opera-tions of the college, maintaining close contact with other col-

serving as a clearinghouse for building issues, organizing the activities of honors fraternities, serving on several LTU com-mittees, and more. “Dean Frasch was an exemplary administrator and we greatly appreciate his service to the College of Engineering and our students,” said Dean of Engineering Nabil Grace.

BJA

Engineering’s biggest department gets new, expanded name

At Lawrence Technological University, it’s no longer just mechanical engineering. The department has been renamed the A. Leon Linton De-partment of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial Engineer-ing, and has expanded leadership as well. Professor Christopher Riedel has been named associate chair and Andrew Gerhart has been named assistant chair of the department. “Basically the department has so many programs now that more help was needed to manage the many aspects of it,” said Professor Badih Jawad, department chair. “Dr. Riedel now focuses on the undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Me-chanical Engineering, but also works at all levels and is now


event coordinator for the department. Dr. Gerhart is in charge of the foundation courses, which cater to the whole College of Engineering, so that is a big responsibility because of the num-ber of students involved—we run eight or 10 sections of these courses. Dr. Gerhart is also in charge of our programs in leader-ship, assessment, and a representative for the department on the assessment committee for the University.” As for the name change, Jawad said robotics was added to the

the state of Michigan to offer this program, and the second in the nation. It is still a relatively small program at the undergraduate levels but the graduate program is strong.”

efforts of associate professor Ahad Ali and his efforts to create the Siemens Electro-Matic Industrial Engineering Laboratory, which offers students the chance to set up a real robotic assem-bly line of the type they’ll encounter in the workplace. “We wanted to give that sizeable program some recognition,” Jawad said. MR

Faculty Achievements

Lewis G. Frasch

Students at (pre-pandemic) work in the Siemens Electro-Matic Industrial Engineering Laboratory.

Professor works to limit underground utility damage

It’s a $30-billion-a-year problem that’s buried—until it’s ac-cidentally dug up. An excavator has a moment of carelessness and accidentally chops through underground infrastructure. Or an excavator calls an underground utility locator line, but the information they’re given turns out to be wrong. In either case, vital services like municipal water or internet are cut off—or worse, public safety is risked with a ruptured natural gas line. An LTU professor is conducting research into how to make such accidents less common—and contributed to an industry report saying the problem is on the rise.

Continued


Research from Ahmed Al-Bayati, as-sistant professor of civil and architec-tural engineering, was cited in the 2019 Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) report, issued in October by the Common Ground

underground infrastructure. The report found that accidental damage to underground

offered technologies and practices to reduce the damage. A case study conducted by Al-Bayati and North Carolina 811 of underground utility damage in North Carolina was one of the appendices of the report, outlining that communication is crucial between phone systems set up to notify utilities and municipalities of digging, utility locators who set out stakes

must respect those markings. Al-Bayati noted there were more than 450,000 instances of damage to underground utilities in 2019, at a staggering cost to society of $30 billion. Said Al-Bayati: “We have investigated the locators’ and excavators’ perceptions through national surveys and focus group studies in order to optimize the current damage preven-tion efforts. Our work has resulted in four peer-reviewed articles that have been published by the American Society of Civil Engineers.” MR

The cover of the 2019 DIRT Report from the Common Ground Alliance.

Prof is making advanced structures, from tiny to titanic

From giant 100-foot antennas in space to tiny robots inside the human body, LTU assistant professor Sichen Yuan is pushing the boundaries of structures and materials. Yuan, who joined the A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering in 2019, has con-tinued the research he began as a student into the design of deployable mesh anten-nas. They’re used to transmit data from orbiting satellites. The antennas must be large—as large as 30 meters in diameter—to transmit radio signals properly, but must be able to be packed down like an umbrella for launch. Yuan has co-authored nearly a dozen academic publications and presentations on this research since 2016 in publications of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and its

Applications include 5G data transmission, military surveil-lance, and climate change research. The work was funded in part through a relationship Yuan developed as a graduate student

-les and McLean, Va. Yuan is also working on a miniature version of the technology called a “deployable tensegrity microrobot.” This tiny structure is inserted into the body in minimally invasive medicine where it unfolds and goes to work on diagnosis and treatment with cameras, lights, sensors and other tools. MR

Mynderse named KEEN Engineering Unleashed Fellow

An LTU faculty member who joined the University in 2012 has been named an Engineering Unleashed Fellow by KEEN, the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network, the organization to give engineers entrepreneurial training that grew out of the Kern Family Foundation. And it’s no wonder, according to that faculty member, James Mynderse, associate professor in the A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering. “I would say the KEEN framework aligns very well with

Mynderse said. “The skills in the KEEN framework make our students far more marketable than a purely technical back-ground. Those skills get at the idea that an engineer can’t just

Sichen Yuan

Continued

Utility damage Continued

For LTU prof, textbook writing runs in the family

It’s a natural that Andrew Gerhart should

mechanics, the branch of physics con-

forces on them. After all, he’s just carrying on the family

Gerhart is assistant department chair and professor in LTU’s A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering. His father, Philip, was dean of engineer-ing and computer science at the University of Evansville, and

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mechanics, subsequently dropping publication of Philip’s book. -

remembered Philip Gerhart’s well-received textbook, wanted an update, and contacted Philip—who then contacted his original collaborator, John Hochstein, a professor at the University of Memphis, as well as his son Andrew, for help. “I thought it would be really cool to work on this with my dad,” Gerhart said. “He was getting close to retirement, and I

Eventually, the collaboration produced Munson, Young, and Okiishi’s Fun-damentals of Fluid Mechan-ics, 8th Edition, published in

pretty major overhaul, blow-ing up one of

sit in a cubicle and run models on their computer. They have

society.”

education were named to the list of Engineering Unleashed -

These faculty members participated in the Engineering -

gram, creating resources that will help them and intercol-legiate colleagues advance the community’s mission to

their students, their institutions, and greater society. The

engineering and STEM faculty annually, highlights entrepre-neurially minded learning as central to the development of engineering graduates prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing world. “An entrepreneurial mindset is something you can do as an engineer within a company or anywhere,” Mynderse said.

sure they have those skills as an entrepreneur, because those skills have value in their work.” MR


Faculty Achievements

Andrew Gerhart

James Mynderse at work in a (pre-pandemic) classroom.

Mynderse Continued

Continued

The cover of “Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics,9th Edition.”

New faculty members appointed by the College of Engineering

The new faculty members appointed by the College of Engi-neering over the past academic year include:

Ben Blau, senior lecturer and advisor in the Department of Engineering Technology’s Audio Engineering Technology pro-gram. Blau has been a profession-al musician and studio recording engineer for nearly 30 years. He previously worked at the Re-cording Institute of Detroit and several area recording studios as an audio engineer. He is a gradu-ate of the Recording Institute of Detroit and the Schoolcraft College associate’s degree program in music recording technology.

Arpan Guha, senior lecturer in civil and architectural engineering. He earned a Bachelor of Technol-ogy in electrical engineering and a Master’s degree in illumination engineering in India, and a PhD in architectural engineering from the University of Nebraska. He has several scholarly research publi-cations and presentations to his credit, and has worked as a light-ing controls specialist and lighting designer.

Razieh Zanganeh, assistant professor of mechanical, robotics, and industrial engineering. Zanganeh earned a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from the Amir Kabir University of Technology in Iran and a PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Maine. Her research interests include compu-tational and theoretical analysis

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algorithms. She has had several research journal articles pub-lished. MR

Abraham Serhane, BSECE’02, MSECE’11, project engineer in me-chanical, robotics, and industrial en-gineering. Serhane is pursuing a PhD in computer and telecommunications engineering from the University of Wollongong in Australia. From 2000 to 2012, he worked at Mercedes Benz as a controls engineer, where he managed and led multi-million-dollar projects for new car launches, and upgrades for assembly lines and body shops.


the chapters and streamlining it,” Andrew Gerhart said. “It was a couple years working on it.” The three were at work on the 9th edition when Philip Gerhart was severely injured in a slip and fall and died, at age 70, in 2017. The other two collaborators continued working on it, including the use of Philip Gerhart’s handwritten notes on an early draft. His name is still on that latest, 9th edition, published in January 2021, Andrew Gerhart noted. The book has also been translated into several other lan-guages, but most of the world’s engineers read it in English, the de facto global language of engineering. An abbreviated edition of the book, A Brief Introduction to Fluid Mechanics,

is also used by many civil and chemical engineering programs

Said Gerhart of the textbook writing experience: “It’s been a cool adventure, because when you go to a conference some-where, people say, ‘Hey, I recognize your name!’—and it’s probably because they’re using my textbook.” Linda Ratts, senior editor at textbook publisher Wiley,

Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics “is the No. 1

textbook’s market share is more than 2.5 times its nearest com-petitor. It’s dominant.” The textbook has been adopted at more than 150 colleges and universities in North America, and is also widely adopted in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia.

MR

Razieh Zanganeh

Textbook Continued

Ben Blau

Arpan Guha

Abraham Serhane


Lawrence Tech stars at autonomous vehicle competitionAfter taking a year off due to the pandemic, it was back to form for Lawrence Technological University at the 28th Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), held June 4-7 at Oakland University. A team of LTU College of Engineering students took fourth place in the event’s original competition, the Auto-Nav Challenge, held since 1993. In this competition, small, cart-like vehicles have to maneuver around obstacles on a road course laid out on an OU parking lot. The students design and build the vehicle’s mechanical, electrical, and navigational systems from the ground up. The team also won a sixth-place

professor of mechanical, robotics, and industrial engineering, was team advisor “It was great to be able to have the competition in person,”

given the complications and restrictions caused by COVID. Despite all the challenges, they built a very reliable robot, and overcame many issues.” The number of competitors shrank in this year’s IGVC due to the pandemic, with 16 universities participating, down from about 40 in 2019, organizers said—mostly because in-ternational teams couldn’t attend. Prior years have seen teams from Canada, Mexico, Turkey, and India competing. The IGVC was established in 1993 by the U.S. Army’s Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Ground Vehicle Systems Center (formerly known as TAR-

DEC) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI). The other part of the competition, added by the IGVC in 2017, has an entirely different focus. In this competition, called the Self-Drive Challenge, students design, fabricate, and pro-gram a self-driving system for an existing passenger vehicle—in the case of this competition, a Polaris GEM two-seat elec-tric city car (or similar vehicle). A team of computer science

The LTU Auto-Nav Challenge team prepares for a run at the Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition.

Student Achievements

The winning LTU Self-Drive Challenge team in the paddock area with their vehicle.

Continued on page 26


L awrence Technological University’s Formula SAE race car team earned third place honors in the presentation event portion of the 2021 Formula SAE competition. A total of 132 collegiate teams from throughout North America participated in the event. In Formula SAE, teams of students are challenged to conceive, design, engineer, build, and race a small, high-performance, Indy-style race car. The teams act as though a manufacturing company has contracted them to build a car for less than $25,000 for the non-professional weekend racer. Cars are judged for acceleration, skid pad testing, fuel economy, and endurance. There are also competitions for

latter of which is where the LTU team scored high. Judges rate the presentation teams on how well they cov-ered the development of technical, research, development,

human resources concepts in creating a smoothly functioning team and a solid race car. Organization, delivery, enthusiasm, use of visual aids, and answers to judges’ questions also add points. This year’s non-racing SAE competitions were held virtu-

ally online from February through April. Leading the business presentation team was Varvara Gromakova, BSME’21.

“We talked about the organization of our team, the marketing of our team, how we tracked documents and transferred knowledge,” said Gromakova, who was

electrical subsystem lead. And while presenting in person with other teams around can be fun, Gromakova said that “honestly I think we enjoyed having the online experience. It gave us an opportunity to prepare better. It really helped us develop our presentation skills.”

Varvara Gromakova (center), chief operations officer of LTU’s Formula SAE team, is ready for the big presentation with Austin Ryan, chief financial officer, and Bram Ligon, chief technology officer.

The Lawrence Technologi-cal University Formula SAE team.




The judges’ response to the LTU presentation was en-thusiastic. Wrote one: “Excellent presentation. You brought something unique that I did not see in other presentations:

safety is important to your team, which is one of the top priorities in the industry.” Wrote another: “Professional ISO 9000 compliant slides were fantastic! Adding the safety of-

safety—OUTSTANDING! This was not seen elsewhere, yet is a no-brainer. Good Gantt chart and budget pie chart. Great handoff between speakers.”

Formula SAE Continued The LTU Formula SAE team is scheduled to take its car to the track at Michigan International Speedway in July to compete against other colleges and universities. (The competition was de-layed from its usual May date due to the pandemic, after being cancelled entirely in 2020.) LTU has been involved in the Formula SAE competition since 1981, when it hosted the event in its early years. The faculty advisor is Wuming Jing, assistant professor in LTU’s A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial Engineering. More about the LTU team at https://www.ltu.edu/formulasae/. MR

The 2019 LTU Formula SAE car in competition at Michigan International Speedway.

TO MAKE ADIFFERENCE

Make a Gift atwww.ltu.edu/give

If you have any questions aboutyour giving options, please contact Peggy English at 248.204.2300 [email protected]

Possible is everything

Your generosity allows us to update laboratories and enhance experiential learning, creating opportunities for our students to put theory into practice. Thank you for helping them achieve their goals.

Nabil Grace, PhDDean, College of Engineering


LTU students sweep Masonry Institute scholarshipsFour Lawrence Technological University students won scholarships from the Masonry Institute of Michigan. Winning the Baiardi Family Founda-tion Scholarship Award was Curtis D. Bac, a student in LTU’s Master of Ar-chitecture program. Mario Chiesa, who is pursuing twin master’s degrees in ar-chitectural engineering and architecture, won the David McGrath Scholarship.

Anna Gagnon-

neering, won the Michael F. Navetta scholarships. And Lydia IrvingJ.R. Snyder Memorial Scholarship. MR

Curtis D. Bac Anna GagnonMario Chiesa Lydia Irving

Student Awards

The following LTU students won industry or academic awards during the 2020-21 academic year:

Victoria Pellerito, BSME’20, was awarded the Engineer-ing Society of Detroit College Student of Year award for

2020, which included a scholarship. She is currently a graduate student at the University of California-Irvine.

Amar Dabaja, BSECE’21, received an IEEE Outstanding Student Award from Southeast Michigan IEEE Computer So-ciety chapter during the Engineering Society of Detroit’s Gold Award event on March 17. MR

estimitated average salaries for AI engineers at from $111,000 a year to as high as $257,000. For more information on the program, visit www.ltu.edu/msai.

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an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Science in data science.

the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science in the -

plinary in nature—and may include course work and research with faculty in other areas on campus, such as the LTU Col-lege of Engineering, College of Business and Information

new program shows how Lawrence Technological University

Science Degrees Continued from back cover Data science graduates are in high demand. The Business Higher Education Forum reports that 69 percent of employers expect candidates with data science skills to get preference for

growth, and U.S. News and World Report recently reported that

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complex data sets and understand the patterns that each set can reveal. Students will also have access to paid internships, which

As with all LTU programs, there are convenient schedules that include day, evening, and online classes, and students will have access to LTU’s well-connected career placement services. For more information on this new program, visit www.ltu.edu/data-science. For more information on admission to any of LTU’s programs, visit www.ltu.edu/admissions or call

MR


students from the LTU College of Arts and Sciences won

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Competition Continued from page 22

Three students win SEAMI scholarshipsT

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Students shine in ASHRAE competitionA -

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Joe AlvordRachel Stencel Ashley Collins

Opportunities in Engineering at Lawrence Tech

Lawrence Technological University offers a wide range of engineering programs at its campus in South-field, Mich., and online. For more information, contact the Office of Admissions at 800.225.5588 or [email protected], or visit www.ltu.edu/futurestudents.

Bachelor’sAudio Engineering TechnologyBiomedical EngineeringCivil EngineeringComputer EngineeringConstruction Engineering Technology and ManagementElectrical Engineering Computer Engineering Electronics Engineering Power EngineeringEmbedded Software EngineeringIndustrial EngineeringMechanical and Manufacturing Engineering TechnologyMechanical Engineering Alternative Energy Automotive Manufacturing Solid Mechanics Thermal Fluids Robotics Engineering

Master’sArchitectural Engineering (combined 5-year bachelor’s and master’s program)Artificial IntelligenceAutomotive EngineeringBiomedical EngineeringCivil EngineeringConstruction Engineering ManagementElectrical and Computer EngineeringEngineering ManagementEngineering QualityIndustrial EngineeringMechanical EngineeringMechatronic and Robotics Engineering

DoctoralCivil EngineeringMechanical Engineering

MinorsAeronautical EngineeringEnergy EngineeringNanoscience and Nanotechnology

Electrical Power SystemsEmbedded SystemsEntrepreneurial Skills

Aeronautical EngineeringElectrical Power SystemsEnergy EngineeringLean Six SigmaTelecommunications Engineering

LTU’s laboratories allow students to understand electrical and electronics engineering from the ground up.


Lawrence Technological UniversityCollege of Engineering

21000 West Ten Mile RoadSouthfield, MI 48075-1058800.225.5588www.ltu.edu/engineeringwww.ltu.edu


College of Engineering Leadership

Nabil F. Grace, PhD, PE, FESDDeanUniversity Distinguished ProfessorDirector, Center for Innovative Materials [email protected]

Selin Arslan, PhDAssociate Dean, Undergraduate [email protected]

Liping Liu, PhDAssociate Dean, Graduate Studies and [email protected]

Elin Jensen, PhDChair, Department of Civil and Architectural [email protected]

Nabih Jaber, PhDChair, Department of Electrical and Computer [email protected]

Badih Jawad, PhD, FESDChair, A. Leon Linton Department of Mechanical, Robotics, and Industrial [email protected]

Kenneth J. Cook, PEChair, Department of Engineering [email protected]

Yawen Li, PhDChair, Department of Biomedical [email protected]

Eric Meyer, associate professor of biomedical engineering (BME), leads a class of BME students in LTU’s Experimental Biomechanics Laboratory in this pre-pandemic scene. The lab conducts live and computer-simulated experiments to determine injury mechanisms and prevention in everyday activities and athletics, and has recently developed a Wearable Technology Innovation Center.

Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement 248.204.2300 [email protected]

YOUR LEGACY, THEIR FUTUREIf you have ever opened a bank account, set up a retirement plan, or taken out an insurance policy, you have most likely completed a beneficiary designation form naming who ultimately will inherit those assets.

Did you know that naming Lawrence Tech a full or partial beneficiary is one of the simplest and most tax-wise ways to make a gift? You get to set the percentage and determine where you want to designate your gift. Doing so enables you to create a legacy at LTU without changing your will or parting with assets now. It allows you to make a gift to programs that matter most to you while still providing for your loved ones. And, should your personal or family circumstances change, you can easily adjust the portion allocated simply by updating the beneficiary form.

As you decide who will inherit your accounts, please consider naming Lawrence Technological University as a full or partial beneficiary. It’s as easy as filling out a form, and a powerful way to support the LTU students, faculty and programs most important to you.

All it takes is a simple signature.

Interested? For more information on how you can maximize your impact, please visit us online at ltu.planmylegacy.org or contact us to learn more.

More simple ways to make your mark on the future:• Make a gift through your

will or trust• Give life insurance you no

longer need• Donate appreciated stock

and save on taxes• Consider a gift of real estate• Make a gift that gives you

fixed payments for life• Make a gift that protects

your assets

College of Engineering

Lawrence Technological University21000 West Ten Mile RoadSouthfield, MI 48075-1058www.ltu.edu

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Non-Profit Org.U.S. Postage

PAIDPermit No. 391Royal Oak, MI


INNATION OV - Lawrence Technological University

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