UWM Research Foundation awards $200,000 in Catalyst Grants to college researchers

Zhen Zeng, assistant professor of computer science doing work at a computer

Identifying proteins for new drugs to treat triple-negative breast cancer. Creating a threat-modeling system to enhance cybersecurity in manufacturing. Developing an improved material for solar cells. These are among the projects from the College of Engineering & Applied Science funded through the latest round of UWM Research Foundation’s Catalyst Grants.

The Catalyst Grant program is designed to seed-fund research in areas where UWM has the greatest potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization. The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation has provided continued support for the program since 2007. New this year, Invenergy has provided support specifically for clean energy research.

Since its inception, the Catalyst Grant program has provided $6 million for projects that have led to 18 UWM startup companies campuswide. The investment has yielded 66 issued patents, 50 pending patents, 30 license/option agreements and more than $40.7 million in follow-on funding to date.

In addition to the Bradley Foundation support, other donors over the years include the Rockwell Automation Charitable Corporation, the Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation, GE HealthCare and Clarios.

This round of grants went to:

Identifying breast cancer-fighting proteins from healthy cells

Qingsu Cheng, biomedical engineering

Cheng is investigating proteins naturally secreted by human cells that inhibit the growth of triple-negative breast cancer cells. Using organoids derived from real patient tumors, he aims to identify proteins that can be developed into small-molecule drugs, offering a cost-effective treatment for this aggressive cancer.

Improving cybersecurity for advanced manufacturing

Zhen Zeng, computer science

Zeng plans to create a threat-modeling system to enhance cybersecurity in complex advanced manufacturing systems. By automating repetitive tasks and integrating threat intelligence, this large language model-assisted tool seeks to significantly reduce the time and effort required for threat modeling.

Developing low-cost materials for better solar panels

Nikolai Kouklin, materials science & engineering, and Konstantin Sobolev, civil & environmental engineering

The researchers aim to develop a cost-effective and scalable alternative material for solar cells and other optoelectronic devices. They are using zinc oxide phosphate films to enhance efficiency and environmental sustainability, overcoming the challenges of the current material.

A device to safely test anchors in concrete structures

Jian Zhao, civil & environmental engineering, and Nathan Salowitz, mechanical engineering

Joining a steel structure with concrete requires drilling a hole in the hardened concrete and inserting a metal anchor with an adhesive that forms a chemical bond with the surfaces. But improper installation or aging can lead to defects in the adhesive-concrete interface. This research team is developing a “smart cap nut” that generates and measures micro-vibrations to detect such defects that often are not visible.

For some freshmen, college began in a research lab rather than the classroom

two young male industrial engineering majors work on a project at the UWM test bed on campus

At UWM’s Connected Systems Institute a steady stream of vials filled with colored water zip around a “testbed” production line. It’s a mini-factory floor for researching automated manufacturing technologies and developing a workforce that can use those innovations.

But just like in real-world factories, the CSI production line may turn out “fails” – vials that are the wrong color, for example, or don’t contain the right amount of water. Or equipment may malfunction, bringing the process to a costly stand still.

Technologies, such as artificial intelligence, have the potential to find and fix such problems by tracking reams of data that a production line produces, said Shamar Webster, who has been working on AI and Cloud development at CSI for the past two years, while finishing his master’s degree in computer science.

Over the summer, Webster, now a program manager at CSI, enlisted two assistants to use Microsoft Power BI, software that can visualize the data.  

Even more impressive is that Moreno and Anderson began participating in this engineering research before they had even stepped foot in a UWM classroom.

Tops in undergraduate research

Twenty-two intrepid incoming freshmen, including five from the College of Engineering & Applied Science, accepted the challenge, offered by UR@UWM program, part of the Office of Undergraduate Research.

The recent high school grads interviewed for the available positions and then worked on a project with a faculty member or research associate in an area related to their intended majors, said Kyla Esguerra, deputy director of the Office of Undergraduate Research.

Besides Moreno and Anderson, the three other incoming freshmen researchers were:

  • Tyler Klute and David Alonso, worked with Pradeep Rohatgi, professor, materials science & engineering.
  • John “Noah” Weishan, worked with Jerald Thomas, assistant professor, computer science.

Fighting fear of the unknown

Though interested in engineering, both Moreno and Anderson worried that they had too vague an idea of what college and a career would be like. So, they decided to leap in.

“I felt like I was behind in what I should know coming to college,” said Moreno, a recent graduate of Lake Mills High School. “I didn’t know what it would be like. So, when I got this email, I jumped at the opportunity.”

Lorenzo Moreno and Peyton Anderson, incoming freshmen in mechanical engineering, built and maintained a dashboard that can give the testbed operators an at-a-glance status.

Anderson (left) and Moreno presented their research poster, “Modeling industrial manufacturing efficiency using Microsoft Power Business Intelligence.”

Anderson, who recently graduated from MPS’s Ronald Reagan High School, said he was eager to start learning and investigating his career options in engineering.

“This opportunity was kind of a blessing.” Anderson said. “I was able to just come along with no experience and they’re teaching me all these things.”

Real engineering problems

To begin, Webster had the interns spend time with him, operating and troubleshooting the CSI manufacturing line. Later, when they learned why curating performance data is so important for automation, it made sense to them.

For Anderson, figuring out a way to log the exported data more quickly, was his top achievement because he wasn’t just using the software, he was figuring out how to get the most from it.

“You don’t just want to collect data and create visuals,” he said. “You want to learn what’s going on from the data. If the only information shows a 40% fail rate – that’s a fact with no context. It was a good lesson for us.”

Toward self-assurance

Along with the industry connections they made, Webster said, the first-year student interns gained more than hands-on experience. They learned to manage the fear of failure.

“My main goal was to make sure that they are confident in themselves,” he said. “It’s important for when they ultimately go into the working world.”

And that’s what Moreno considered his summer’s highlight. When a group of professionals from Microsoft and the Wisconsin venture capital firm TitleTown Tech visited, the interns presented their project in person.

“Definitely it was presenting the work that we did to really important people,” Moreno said. “It was just really cool to feel that pride of accomplishment.”

College welcomes new cohort of 24 students from Taiwan exchange programs

two asian students

On Aug. 26, the College welcomed 24 new students who are participating in an academic exchange program between UWM engineering and Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU) in Taiwan.

The college and CYCU have operated a dual master’s degree program since fall of 2017. But last year, the partnership grew to include CYCU undergraduates who come here for their final two undergraduate years. In both programs, the credits students earn are transferrable to their home institution and students receive their degrees from both institutions.

This year’s second cohort includes 17 juniors in the “2+2 program” in three departments: computer science, computer engineering and electrical engineering. There also are seven new dual master’s students in the departments of electrical engineering and industrial & manufacturing engineering.

“This year we’re going to see stronger integration between the students who are coming from CYCU and our current students,” said Dean Brett Peters. “We’re also getting a lot of visibility from the companies that are looking to employ the students in internships and other opportunities. So, I think we’re going to see that grow and develop as well.”

They join another 17 “2+2” seniors and eight dual master’s students completing their degrees at UWM this year. 

Graduate student awarded funding to develop semi-autonomous robotic devices for the disabled

Md Tanzil Shahria, a doctoral student, computer science, has been awarded a $2,500 stipend to support his research in designing robotic devices to assist mobility-challenged people.

Shahria is designing a vision-based assistive robot control system that allows users with disabilities to identify and locate objects, use the robotic grippers to manipulate them, and perform pick-and-place tasks by speaking commands rather than manually manipulating the robot.

Shahria, a member of Professor Habib Rahman’s mechanical engineering lab, is creating a deep learning-based model that also uses a depth camera and mapping function to detect and interact with items.

The support is part of the Fall 2024 “Student Scholars Program” of the Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute (NMDSI).

This is Shahria’s third consecutive award from NMDSI, and the support has allowed him to develop different components of this system over several semesters.

The NMDSI is a partnership among the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Marquette University and Northwestern Mutual that aims to make southeastern Wisconsin a national hub for data science technology, research, business and talent development.

Amano’s $5.7 million DOE grant gets coverage from several media outlets

man in energy lab

Multiple media outlets published reports of the recent $5.7 million federal grant awarded to Professor Ryo Amano, mechanical engineering, by the U.S. Department of Energy. The funding supports training programs to increase a workforce with “green” skills needed in the manufacturing sector.

The grant establishes Industrial Training Assessment Centers in the Midwest that will provide instruction in energy assessment. Amano will direct the initiative and work with nine community college partners across Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Milwaukee Business Journal, “Federal grant powers UWM’s training for clean energy jobs”

Wisconsin Public Radio, “UW-Milwaukee leading effort to train workers for green jobs that support manufacturing”

BizTimes.com, “U.S. Department of Energy grants $5.7 million to UWM’s College of Engineering”

WisBusiness.com, UWM press release

Two new lecturers in computer science begin this fall

2 individual headshots, a man and a woman in blue headscarf

Welcome Rohit Singh and Ayesha Siddika Nipu, both lecturers in the computer science department.

Singh works at the intersection of mathematics and computer science.  His work involves designing computationally efficient algorithms to derive meaningful information from big datasets. This semester, he is teaching “Algorithm Design & Analysis,” “Fundamentals of Computer Graphics,” “Data Structure and Algorithms,” and “Scientific Data Visualization.”

He holds a master’s degree from the University of Florida and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati.

Nipu comes from UW-Platteville, where she taught undergraduate courses. At the College of Engineering & Applied Science, she is teaching a variety of programming and software engineering courses, from sophomore to graduate levels, with a strong focus on C++ and Java.

Her research interest includes the use of artificial intelligence for natural language processing in healthcare applications. She earned her master’s degree in computer science at Missouri State University with a graduate certificate in data science. Before moving to the U.S., she was a software developer in Bangladesh.

Cheng receives $649,000 from USDA to develop a process to monitor and treat pathogens in polluted wastewater

Globally, more than 70% of fresh water is used to produce crops.

Qingsu Cheng, assistant professor, biomedical engineering, is the principal investigator on a three-year, $649,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to develop and test a technology that assures the quality of reclaimed water and agricultural wastewater so that more can be used in irrigating crops. The project will aid in improving food and water security.

Currently, these alternative water sources are poorly monitored and can transmit waterborne diseases that are passed on to people who eat the crops, Cheng said. 

Using biospecimens from farms and water treatment plants, he will create probes using nanoparticles to identify the presence of bacteria and microchip screening to allow nanoparticles to target different kinds of bacteria through position coding.

This proposed technology will be able to cost-effectively profile multiple pathogens simultaneously in 15 minutes.

“After validation in the lab, we will test the product with wastewater and irrigation water to determine the efficiency of our product,” he said.

The research is conducted in collaboration with Troy Skwor, UWM associate professor of biomedical sciences, and partners at the University of Cincinnati. Skwor is responsible for developing high-efficiency, non-antibiotic sterilization treatment that is not toxic to plants and animals.

Grad student awarded AEE scholarship for top female U.S. student pursuing energy career

Congratulations to Asma Khasawneh, who was awarded the Ruth Whitlock CWEEL Scholarship by the Council of Women in Energy & Environmental Leadership, a division of the Association of Energy Engineers.

The award honors the top U.S. female student pursuing a career in the energy or environmental fields. Khasawneh’s advisor is Professor Ryo Amano, mechanical engineering.

The $2,500 scholarship recognizes academic excellence, leadership potential, and a commitment to advancing women’s careers in energy.

The scholarship is named after Ruth Whitlock, a notable advocate for women in the sector and former executive administrator for AEE members.

AEE will present the winners of its four scholarships at the AEE World Conference on Sept. 25-27 in Nashville, Tenn.

Cuzner awarded grants to improve energy delivery systems for EVs and the electrical grid

headshot of a man

With support from two research grants, totaling $774,000, Robert Cuzner, a UWM professor of electrical engineering, is advancing two arms of research that will help electrify transportation and modernize the national electrical grid.

Data-driven modeling for EVs

Building complex power/energy delivery networks is time intensive. To speed the process, Cuzner, an expert in power conversion and distribution, is developing novel modeling techniques.

Backed by a $274,000 grant from Eaton Corp., Cuzner is participating in a U.S. Department of Defense initiative to create machine learning-based design tools for power electronics-based systems.

Power electronics are devices that regulate and control the flow and conversion of electrical power. They are fundamental to energy delivery.

Ultimately, Eaton Corp., with UWM and the University of Arkansas, aim to develop design tools in open-source software to so that more people can use them. The initial design application is electromagnetically compatible motor drives for electric vehicles.  

Breaking down microgrids

Cuzner also has a two-year, $500,000 grant from the Office of Naval Research to develop a “building-block” approach to design and integration of microgrids on U.S. military installations.

Microgrids hold the potential to modernize the aging electrical grid and incorporate sustainable energy sources, like solar. They are power sources for a limited area, such as a military base, that can be connected to the main grid or operated disconnected. But the components of microgrids that operate over large service areas need to communicate better.

A microgrid can be built into smaller “building blocks” – or nanogrids – that can be installed as need arises and ultimately networked together as the full microgrid installation develops.

Cuzner’s lab is developing field-deployable artificial intelligence that will allow these nanogrids to work together autonomously or to operate independently of each other to ensure that energy is delivered where and when it is needed, even under damage scenarios.

This improves the microgrid’s ability to recover quickly to minimize power outages.

This project is in collaboration with Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, Calif., and the Naval Facilities Engineering Expeditionary Warfare Center in Port Hueneme, Calif.

UW Board of Regents approved six faculty promotions

six individual head shots of men

Congratulations to the following faculty members in the college whose promotions were recently approved by the UW Board of Regents. Five attained the rank of full professor and one was promoted to associate professor.

Promoted to the rank of Professor include:

  • Nidal Abu-Zahra, materials science & engineering
  • Ilya Avdeev, mechanical engineering
  • Robert Cuzner, electrical engineering
  • Junjie Niu, materials science & engineering
  • Mohammad Habib Rahman, mechanical engineering

Xiaoli Ma, materials science & engineering, was promoted to the rank of Associate Professor.