UWM engineering students pitch in to inspire girls to pursue STEM

On March 5, three undergraduate students who are enrolled in the new class Topics in Engineering & Applied Science: STEM Outreach volunteered at Discovery World Girls & STEM, an interactive event that drew 2,000 visitors.

“We helped close to 200 girls and their family members make little circuits to light up pictures that they drew,” said Chris Beimborn, STEM outreach manager for UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science. The event aims to inspire girls to pursue STEM fields through interactions and conversations with female role models.

The class is taught by Sarah Blackowski, assistant professor of engineering education, with outreach fieldwork coordinated by Beimborn.

Park brings $1 million research project on eco-friendly circuit breakers to UWM

Chanyeop Park, assistant professor, electrical engineering, has brought to UWM a $1 million research project from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a clean alternative to the world’s most potent greenhouse gas—SF6.

As the nation looks to strengthen and upgrade its grid, it will be critical to phase out equipment that uses SF6, or sulfur hexafluoride. The man-made gas—an excellent insulator used primarily by electric utilities to manage electricity’s flow in high-voltage circuit breakers—is extremely bad for the environment, Park says. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, it is 22,800 times worse for the climate than carbon dioxide. It enters the atmosphere through equipment leaks and remains for 3,200 years.

Park is working with Georgia Tech researchers, who lead the nearly $4 million project from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) to develop and test a prototype of a three-phase SF6-free AC high-voltage circuit breaker.

The team will test the prototypes throughout the project. In late summer or fall, Park will initially test a reduced-scale prototype at UWM; in the final year of the project, a full-scale prototype will be tested at KEMA Labs, in Chalfont, PA.

The project includes a plan to transfer the technology to market.

Slavens discusses research on motion analysis with CTSI Discovery Radio

Brooke Slavens

In February, Brooke Slavens, associate professor, mechanical and biomedical engineering, spoke to CTSI Discovery Radio for their episode “All in the Wrist: MRI & Motion Analysis Research Study.” 

Slavens and her clinical collaborators at Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin discussed using MRI and motion analysis technologies to improve diagnoses, treatment and management of various degenerative conditions and injuries of the wrist.

In this study, Slavens compares 4D MRI data to motion analyses of the hand and wrist. The work is done in UWM’s Mobility Laboratory, which Slavens directs. 

CTSI is a monthly radio show and podcast produced by the Clinical & Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin. 

Listen here. (Slavens’s segment begins 17 minutes, 30 seconds into the show.)

NSF funds Stern’s research to help small-scale farmers enter carbon marketplace as they adopt sustainable practices

image of a red barn with a wooden fence around it, and green trees in the background

The National Science Foundation awarded $50,000 to Nathaniel Stern, a UWM professor of mechanical engineering and art & design, in February for an I-Corps project that could enable 5 million small-scale farmers worldwide to participate in the global carbon and ecosystem services markets.

The grant will allow Stern to develop and test a platform to collect, synthesize, and share verifiable carbon sequestration data from farmers who own only a few hectares.

Nathaniel Stern

Stern says it’s a step toward making it easy and profitable for these farmers to capture and sell carbon credits as they convert to more viable farming practices.

“Current carbon credit origination costs typically only make financial sense for farmers who own more than 1,200 hectares,” he says. The platform would financially support a small-scale farmer’s transition from traditional farming practices (e.g., monocrops and dependence on fertilizers, herbicides and insecticides) to regenerative ones (e.g., agroforestry, low-till, and using naturally nutritious, healthy soil).

Companies that purchase the carbon credits in order meet their own sustainability goals, he adds, would be supporting the restoration and protection of ecological assets.

Stern’s platform will include the use of smartphones, satellite and drone images, and remote sensing to verify changes to the ecological state that occur after a farmer begins a regenerative practice.

Highly competitive I-Corp grants help move the most promising STEM-based research and ideas from academic labs to society.

Stern co-founded his climate action startup, Eco Labs, with UWM alumnus Samantha Tan (BFA ’18) and her partner Sev Nightingale. It grew out of artistic research supported by UWM’s Office of Research and engineering-based research at UWM’s Lubar Entrepreneurship Center.

Park brings research on “stretchy electronic material” to UWM

Chanyeop Park, assistant professor, electrical engineering, has brought to UWM a $172,000 National Science Foundation-funded research study on electronic materials that function while being stretched, bent or compressed.

The research could support the development of soft electronic technologies–such as biorobotics and soft robotics—that rely on highly flexible, electronic materials.

Park’s study focuses on composites that have gained extensive attention from the scientific community for such applications: soft polymers with metals that are liquid at, or near, room temperature.

One hurdle to their use, he says, is developing a greater understanding of their aging and failure mechanisms.

Park is working with Amanda Koh, assistant professor in chemical and biological engineering at the University of Alabama. Their project combines experimental analysis and numerical modeling to identify key physics that lead to the unique electrical performance, aging and breakdown of these promising composites. The goal, he said, is to identify the mechanisms that ensure the material’s dielectric integrity.  

Dielectric materials make it possible to safely store, deliver large amounts of energy

Park is an expert in researching the dielectric integrity of future power technologies.

Dielectric materials, he explains, are used in energy-storage devices to provide insulation. “They isolate conductive components from one another, prevent sparks between them, and make it possible to safely store and deliver large amounts of energy.”

An everyday example of a dielectric material is the plastic insulation around a cellphone’s charging cord, Park explains.  Over time, and with enough bending, the insulation might degrade, causing the cord to fail.  

Like the charging cord, flexible biorobotics carry power and bend. However, the amount of power they carry in a small space presents a challenge: developing dielectric materials that make it possible for such compact devices to safely and consistently deliver high levels of power.

Park says his overall research mission is to secure the dielectric resiliency and to prevent the electrical aging of advanced power technologies. Through the Office of Naval Research, he also is researching solutions to mitigate partial discharge in power electronic converters that are driving the electrification of naval ships.

Xiao, Tabatabai on one of two national teams to address bridge damage for federal government

A truck carrying an over-height load becomes wedged under a concrete bridge, causing debris to fall and leading to a bridge closure. An over-height tractor trailer slams into a train bridge, damaging infrastructure and halting traffic flow for hours.

According to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), over-height vehicles are among the main causes of structural damage to bridges — a nationwide problem that has eluded enduring, effective countermeasures.

The agency is ready to conduct research and field evaluation of an energy-dissipating prototype that could protect bridge girders in the event of a strike from these vehicles.

They have chosen two teams from across the nation for this work, one that includes two UWM experts in bridge impacts and repairing damaged bridge structures–Xiao Qin and Habib Tabatabai. The two have partnered with Applied Research Associates and now will be allowed to bid on various tasks within the $1.8 million FHWA-led project. 

About the UWM bridge researchers

Qin leads the UWM team. He is a UWM traffic safety expert who in 2021 was awarded $500,000 from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program to help all state departments of transportation, public safety agencies, and the motor carrier industry prevent and mitigate the risk of bridge and tunnel strikes.  Qin is a Lawrence E. Sivak ’71 professor of civil & environmental engineering and director of UWM’s Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT).

Tabatabai is an expert on bridge engineering and assessment issues—most notably the long-term durability and reliability of bridge structures. At the invitation of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, he is currently reviewing the failure and collapse of mammoth radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. He is a professor of civil & environmental engineering and director of the UWM’s Structural Engineering Lab,

For this project, the FHWA has partnered with departments of transportation in seven states. It will award funds to the two teams to complete tasks including researching, testing, analyzing, delivering technology and deploying technology.   

The project is expected to start in May.

Alumna Maddie Frank receives patent on invention started as undergraduate

Congratulations to Maddie Frank (’20 Electrical Engineering). In January, Frank—along with Kyle Jansson and JD Lang of UWM’s Prototyping Center—was issued a patent for a novel dust collection system for CNC routers.

“UWM provided the opportunity to learn from the talented individuals at the Prototyping Center,” Frank said. “The patent is the result of that wonderful collaboration and learning.”

Frank is an additive manufacturing engineer at Fabric8Labs in San Diego and continues to collaborate with UWM’s Prototype Center.

The patented dust collection system is a step-change in improvement in the ability to capture dust for CNC routers, explains Jansson. It significantly captures debris from the cutting operations while accommodating tools of various lengths, stock thicknesses, and depths of cuts. There is no setup and adjustments are automatic.

As a UWM undergraduate, Frank had worked at the Prototyping Center, where she became an expert on 3D printing. She received third place in the technical competition at the 2018 Additive Manufacturing Users Group conference for creating a dust collection system; at AMUG’s 2019 conference, she won first place in the advanced finishing category for her entry of a 3D printed electric cello, modeled after her own classically made instrument.  

Brooke Slavens joins college; expert in human movement, rehabilitation engineering and more

Brooke Slavens, who has collaborated for several years with students and faculty in UWM’s College of Engineering & Applied Science, has joined the college as an associate professor, mechanical and biomedical engineering. She had been an associate professor in UWM’s College of Health Sciences since 2010.

Slavens researches the dynamics of human movement, musculoskeletal modeling, MRI and ultrasound musculoskeletal imaging, rehabilitation engineering, and orthopaedic biomechanics.

She is currently investigating the prevention of secondary medical conditions of the shoulder in manual wheelchair users with spinal cord injury across the lifespan. She is also leading a collaborative team with the Genetics Center at Children’s Wisconsin and Marquette University’s Orthopaedic and Rehabilitation Engineering Center to characterize the features of hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare disease that renders children susceptible to constant and lifelong joint pain and fatigue. 

Slavens’s work is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), and the VA Rehabilitation Research & Development Service (RR&D).

At the College of Engineering & Applied Science, she is joined by three research staff: Alyssa Schnorenberg, research scientist; Anthony Nguyen, research technician; and Jeremiah Johnson, research engineer.

As professionals in multiple fields upgrade tech skills, UWM’s MS Computer Science enrollment sets record

Joseph Layden had no formal computer science education when he began earning his master’s of computer science degree at UWM. Yet by the time he graduated, he had created an app in his capstone research project called SlippAway—a tool for Lake Michigan boaters to locate open marina slips capable of accommodating the size and power requirements of their boats for a day, a week or even the entire season. He plans to market it.

Layden was one of 24 final-year computer science master’s student who recently presented their capstone research projects in which, under the supervision of a faculty mentor, they applied what they learned to a technical problem of their choice.

While many of these master’s students have earned their undergraduate degrees in computer science, an increasing number have not. Current students hold undergraduate degrees in such fields as meteorology, music education, English and film studies. Layden had earned his undergraduate degree from UWM in information science and technology.

During their capstone presentations, students spoke about the reasons they enrolled in either the professional track (for people interested in careers including senior software engineer, computer systems analyst, computer network architect and machine learning engineer) or the regular track (which adds career options including computer science professor and computer research scientist and opens the door to earning a doctoral degree).

Professional track is most in-demand program

The majority of students, including Layden, had followed the professional track.

“My goal was to really challenge myself and learn as much as I could,” Layden said. “I had worked freelance as a web developer and database coordinator, and I sought the structure and knowledge a formal education brings.”

Another professional-track student, Marissa Bedard, earned her undergraduate degree in music education from a college in Cleveland. She discovered it was a comfortable switch from studying music to studying computer science topics, such as artificial intelligence.

“There is a lot of overlap between synthesizing a lot of small [musical] pieces in order to make something bigger and learning a new language,” Bedard said.  

Bedard, who graduated in December, said that her employer—Boston-based Alegeus– paid part of her tuition. “It worked out very well for me.”

Before starting his computer science master’s degree, Sam Kersebet worked as a videographer in Door County. While at UWM, he interned at Kohls as a front-end web developer and accepted a full-time job upon his December graduation.

“The graduate program gave me a good groundwork for the future,” he said. “I learned the soft skills and the hard skills.”

Kersebet had earned a bachelor’s degree from UWM in digital arts & culture and selecting a graduate school was easy, he said. “I had chosen UWM for my undergrad because it’s part of a real city with soul to it,” he said. “I thought the education here was worth the value.”

Regular track is program of choice for students pursuing research

Several of the students at Capstone Day had followed the regular track and anticipated earning doctoral degrees or pursuing careers that included research.

Mohit Ramesh and Omana Anne both earned undergraduate degrees in electronics and communication engineering in India. Ramesh said he was drawn to UWM for two reasons.

“First, I saw that it was a top research university,” he said. “When I saw that Satya Nadella graduated from UWM in computer science, I thought ‘Yay!’ ”

Nadella (’90 MS Computer Science) is a UWM alumnus.

Anjali Venugopal also earned her undergraduate degree from India and was eager to graduate in December. “UWM’s program was wonderful” she said, “and I worked with amazing professors.” During her time at UWM, she completed an internship as a software developer with Amazon.

What was next? Before graduating, she was offered a full-time job with the company in Seattle.

Find out what a master’s degree in computer science can do for you

Enrollment has reached an all-time high in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Master of Science in Computer Science program. In 2022, 191 students were enrolled in the program, compared to 110 in 2021. Most students are following the professional track, says Susan McRoy, professor and chair of UWM’s Computer Science Department.   

Earning a master’s degree in computer science, she said, is helping many people, including working professionals, upgrade their skills and break into fields that offer high salaries and multiple career paths.

The regular track, she said, is best suited to students with prior degrees in computer science; students without undergraduate computing degrees may find the professional track more accessible.

Earning a master’s degree typically takes four semesters for those with undergraduate degrees in computer science; five semesters for those without undergraduate degrees in computer science.

Learn more about UWM’s master’s degree program.

First year of diversity internship program finds success for students, employers

Isaac Gonzalez used software that he learned in his engineering courses at UWM to solve a problem in a manufacturing plant.

Work experience like Gonzalez’s is the kind that brought 56 UWM students closer to identifying and starting their careers through an internship program designed to address the need to widen and diversify the talent pipeline in Southeastern Wisconsin and provide meaningful professional experiences to UWM undergraduates.

More.