2011-12 NEWSLETTER

The Design Lab staff who support student success! From left to right: Valerie Masterson, Louise Courtois, Sam Chiappone, Scott Miller, Scott Yerbury, Mark Anderson, Casey Goodwin, Mark Steiner, Junichi Kanai, Aren Paster and Jeff Morris

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Message from the Director

W HAT T H E D E S I G N L A B EXPERIENCE IS ALL ABOUT

In the Design Lab at Rensselaer we enlist our students to solve challenging and important problems. Our students look forward to an experience that prepares them for the real world. Industry-sponsored projects are our flagship experience. As you will see in the project highlights that follow, many of our sponsors include the companies who employ our students. We ask our sponsors for problems that are important to them and for sponsor mentors to share their experience and excitement for engineering with our students. As students get to know and understand our sponsors, they naturally become motivated to do their best and the Design Lab Experience becomes much more than an academic endeavor. Although each project is first and foremost an educational experience for our students, we always approach our work in an authentic and real world fashion. Underlying the specific goals for any particular project is our central mission to prepare our students for the future. In most cases that future is to practice the engineering profession. We know however that Rensselaer engineering students have many interests. In time, some may become physicians, lawyers, entrepreneurs,

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researchers, industry leaders, educators, inventors, or politicians. This means that the Design Lab Experience must prepare our students not only for their future career in engineering, but also for their future career in life. In addition to the benefits of working with Rensselaer Initial User Trial of Oral Hygiene Device at the Center students, faculty and staff, for Disability Services our sponsors and partners definition. As an internationally receive the gift of being part of recognized center of excellence something that helps to make the in the area of design-based learnworld a better place to live. It is ing, the Design Lab at Rensselaer truly gratifying to participate and is pioneering new approaches for support initiatives that are for the teaching and learning that uticommon good. For example, lize design-based instruction. this year in the Design Lab we developed new technologies that The Design Lab Experience is give people with disabilities the about industry-sponsored projfreedom to do things they might ects, making the world a better otherwise find difficult or implace to live, and innovation in possible to do. We worked on education. All of this is used to numerous projects that help to prepare our students for the fuoptimize and improve upon the ture. To find out more about potential for renewable energy the Design Lab, please conand promote sustainable design. tact us to arrange a visit. Our We also designed, built and delivdoors are always open and you ered systems for people in develare welcome to visit us anytime oping countries so they can posto see for yourself what the Desibly live better and happier lives. sign Lab Experience is all about. Mark W. Steiner, Ph.D. In the interest of finding new and Director better ways to deliver the Design O.T. Swanson MultiDisciplinary Lab Experience, we dedicate sigDesign Laboratory nificant time and effort to understanding and developing new ways to use the design process to solve problems. We believe that the design process provides a discipline for learning that the world needs to understand better. The very nature of design is that it starts with ambiguity, and, if successful, ends with crystal clear definition. Very few real world problems Crate Opening Party: Delivery of Solar Biomass Converter to Ghana start and end with clear

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS Technology Innovation Award

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Center for Disability Services have been awarded a 2012 Technology Innovation Award by the Center for Economic Growth for collaboration with Dr. Eric Ledet from the Biomedical Engineering Department on a variety of projects to help people who are mentally and/or physically challenged. The award is being given in part to recognize work to develop a dental hygiene assist device (see project highlights) by students in the Design Lab.

Elevator Pitch Competition Winner

Inspired by their GE Wind Energy capstone project, a multidisciplinary team of Design Lab students became winners of the Elevator Pitch Competition on campus. Greg Pitner, Alex Worcester, Robert Pearson, Desiree Philips, and Julio Rodriguez won the award for their idea of a centralized generator for wind farms that promises to drastically reduce the capital cost of renewable energy.

Promotion of Mark J. Anderson

In December 2011, Mark J. Anderson received a promotion to Senior Project Engineer. Mark joined the Design Lab as a Project Engineer in 2008 and has played an instrumental role in driving continuous improvement and facilitating Design Lab growth. Please join us in congratulating Mark on this well deserved promotion.

Retirement of Professor Richard Alben

In 2001, after a successful career at GE Global Research Center, Rich Alben became Clinical Associate Professor of Mechanical, Nuclear and Aerospace Engineering. He taught courses in Operations Management, Product Realization, and International Operations. Most notably he was a member of the faculty team that teaches in the O.T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory. It’s been our great fortune to have Rich working with us in the Design Lab for the past ten years. During that time the Design Lab grew from a fledgling start-up to a nationally recognized capstone design program. In May 2011 Rich retired from RPI. We will greatly miss Rich Alben here in the Design Lab. Please join us in wishing him great health and happiness in this next stage in his life.

THE DESIGN LAB FACULTY ADVISORY COMMITTEE This year we formally initiated the first Design Lab Faculty Advisory Committee. The purpose of the group is to serve as departmental ambassadors to the Design Lab to communicate bilaterally on issues related to curricula, student performance, and opportunities to improve upon the Design Lab Experience. The committee will also advise on policies and procedures to optimize the Design Lab Experience for all students and on the sponsor development process to cultivate an appropriate breadth and depth of multidisciplinary design projects for students. Committee members include professors Lester Gerhardt (ECSE), Cheng Hsu (ISE), Joshua Hurst (MANE), Junichi Kanai (ECSE), Eric Ledet (BME), Dan Lewis (MSE), Rahmi Ozisik (MSE), Mark Steiner (MANE), and Dan Walczyk (MANE). Two meetings were held this

year where we discussed a wide range of topics including the role of capstone as a window on our curriculum and feedback to the departments for continuous improvement. There was consensus that we should look toward leveraging past success to build upon our national reputation as a premier multidisciplinary capstone design program. From left to right: Lester Gerhardt, Dan Lewis, Cheng Hsu, Eric Ledet, Mark Steiner, Rahmi Ozisik, Dan Walczyk, Junichi Kanai, (Not pictured: Joshua Hurst)

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Welcome to our New Sponsors!

It is wonderful when new sponsors join us in the Design Lab. We learn so much from the fascinating problems they share with us. Five new sponsors joined the Design Lab this past year. We welcome the following companies as our newest group of Design Lab sponsors:

Corning Incorporated:

The world leader in specialty glass and ceramics with more than 160 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge enabling advanced technology systems.

Momentive Performance Materials:

HJM Precision:

Performance Indicator:

Over 35 years of experience and product knowledge in the field of metrology providing service and technical support to customers in solving their problems.

A global leader in advanced materials, with a 70-year heritage of being first to market with performance applications that support and improve everyday life. A technology company that develops and markets color indicator technologies that can be activated by a variety of stimuli such as water, temperature, light, stress and bacteria.

Waters Corporation:

Whether discovering new pharmaceuticals or assuring the safety of the world’s food and drinking water supplies, scientists worldwide rely on Waters analytic instruments.

SPOTLIGHT ON PROJECT SPONSOR MENTORS Every semester we rely on an untold number of mentors and advisors who provide consultation and guidance to students. Thanks to our industry sponsors, community partners, Rensselaer faculty, and Design Lab staff members, students learn about what it takes to be successful. Our project mentors dedicate countless hours to helping our students. In many ways, they are unsung heroes. They do it because of the great sense of accomplishment we all feel when our students are successful. They do it for the energy and excitement that we see in our students. Our project mentors bring a great deal of passion for encouraging our students to be their very best. With so many mentors who support the Design Lab each semester, it’s difficult to know exactly where to start to acknowledge everyone. As a start we want to acknowledge one individual who has made a notable difference in supporting the learning experience we provide to students.

Left to Right: Vic Abate, Mark Steiner, Bharat Bagepalli

Bharat Bagepalli, ScD (MIT), MS (Yale), is a Principal Engineer with GE Wind Energy. Dr. Bagepalli worked for GE’s Global Research Center for over 15 years, working on numerous projects for several GE businesses, before taking Senior Technologist positions with Generator Design Engineering, and now Wind Energy. His area of expertise is in wind drive system design. He has been awarded 66 U.S. patents and authored over 20 technical publications. Bharat brings a wealth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm to the project teams GE Wind Energy sponsors every year. He works with his colleagues in GE to help define meaningful experiences for our students. On September 14th 2011 he delivered a well-received seminar entitled “Wind Turbine Technology: Past, Present and Future” in the Design Lab. We are very grateful for Bharat’s generous support and his continuous efforts dedicated to our students.

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A Special Thanks to Our Past and Present Sponsors for Their Generous Support! • Albany Guardian Society • Albany International Corporation • Barclays • Boeing • Comfortex • Corning • DRS Power Technology, Inc. • General Dynamics / Electric Boat • GE Energy • GE Healthcare • General Motors • Gerber Technology • Hamilton Sunstrand / UTC • Harris Communications • Hearst Corporation • HJM Precision • IBM • Lockheed Martin

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• MicroAire • Momentive Peformance Materials • Monotype Imaging • Morgan Stanley • National Instruments • Northeastern Association of the Blind (NABA) • Northrop Grumman • NY State Department of Environmental Conservation • New York Independent System Operators (NYISO) • Performance Indicator • Pitney Bowes • SAIC • Schick/Energizer • St. Peters Healthcare • Waters • WMS

S T N DE

This was another year of steadfast accomplishment for the Design Lab at Rensselaer. In total, over one thousand students participated in multidisciplinary designbased learning experiences during the 2011-12 academic year. At the senior capstone level, over 350 students from biomedical, computer systems, electrical, industrial, materials and mechanical engineering areas worked on 49 project teams. Thanks to our many sponsors and partners, we enjoyed a wide range of exciting project challenges in areas such as renewable energy, sustainable design, advanced materials, robotics and automation, web applications and biomedical technology. As a prelude to the capstone course, over 600 sophomore level students worked in the Design Lab as part of the Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) course. It’s fun to see IED students work earnestly to optimize their system designs and get a chance to taste what it takes to be a real engineer. Each semester we kick off IED with the mini-projects competitions. The mini-projects are followed by a larger team-based project where students work to solve world problems such as providing for safe drinking water, development of alternative energy approaches and creation of new healthcare systems.

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D E S I G N

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P R O J

The following project highlights provide a snapshot of just some of the projects we worked on during the 2011-12 academic year. As you look through the highlights of the projects you will be amazed by the diversity of topics, the level of technical challenge, and the results delivered by our students. Robotic Wing Box Assembly & Inspection Sponsored by The Boeing Company

The wing box of a modern commercial airplane provides the structure necessary to react to the forces produced by the airplane’s lift and acts as the airplane’s fuel tank. Current assembly, inspection and maintenance of commercial aircraft wing boxes are human tasks. Using robotic technology would enable smaller access holes in the wing and improve aerodynamic performance. The objective of this project was to design and de-

velop a robot system that can semiautonomously perform a variety of tasks including fastener replacement, sealant repair, conductivity checks, debris removal, non-destructive inspection, and shimming. The approach taken by the project teams involved establishing application requirements by working closely with Boeing engineers to develop alternate system concepts and then to model and analyze viable system concept solutions using off the shelf simulation programs. Students proposed a modular rail system from which robotic arm segments would traverse the inside of the wing box assembly. A control system architecture was also developed, along with a possible design for a fastener application end effector.

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Energy Management Controller For Hybrid Fuel Cell Transportation Sponsored by UTC Power

UTC Power has provided fuel cell (FC) power plants for fleet transportation since 1998 that have powered FC hybrid buses in the United States and Europe. They are interested in alternative approaches for the remaining sub-systems to improve overall system efficiency and reliability, while reducing overall fleet cost. A key element to achieving these design objectives lies in the energy management system controller. Following the previous team’s relevant technology studies and system topology work, this past year, the student team developed a multitude of energy management strategies for FC hybrid buses. Preliminary energy management system models were developed using simulation tools to optimize system efficiency, reliability, and cost for the various configurations. UTC Power and the students submitted a paper reporting these results to 2013 IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition (APEC 2013).

A Safer Hockey Rink Dasher Board System Sponsored by Elite Hockey

Ice hockey rinks have dasher boards encircling the field of play. These boards contain the puck, and can also be used as tools to play the puck. Players are permitted to pass using the boards, and to “body check” opponents into the boards to slow or stop their progress. Players often rush at high speed to the area behind the goal to beat an icing call or retrieve the puck before their opponent. Because of the board’s limited shock absorbing capability, there is a serious threat of injury during player collisions. The goal of this project was to design an improved dasher board system to reduce the occurrence and severity of player injuries while not significantly affecting game play.

Last year (2010-11) student teams researched the problem, benchmarked existing systems, and proposed a potential solution. This year (2011-12) teams validated the past team’s decisions with a prototype build and test phase of a single four-foot section of dasher board. Project deliverables included detailed plans for a patent pending rink system with proof of concept performance testing.

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H I G H L I G H T S

Helping Disabled People Maintain Dental Hygiene In Partnership with the Center for Disability Services

Converting Biomass into Bio-char Using Solar Pyrolysis In Partnership with KNUST, NCIIA and Boeing

Brushing ones’ teeth is critical to preventing periodontal disease, yet many people with disabilities find it difficult to effectively use conventional toothbrushes. In many cases, dis-

This project was in support of wasteto-energy conversion of available biomass in Ghana. The project began in Spring 2010 when a Design Lab team developed equipment to test the energy available in various waste streams using pyrolysis. During the summer of 2010 a group of Rensselaer students traveled to Ghana to reproduce the equipment with local materials. In 2010-11, Design Lab teams continued to run pyrolysis tests, perform analysis of the agricultural waste streams in Ghana, as well as build a full-scale solar pyrolysis system. A delegation of students from KNUST and Stellenbosch University visited Rensselaer during the Summer of 2011 and constructed an improved solar pyrolysis system to demonstrate biomass conversion. In the Fall of 2011, a Design Lab team developed concepts of a pre-drying dehydrator, analyzed the volumes of waste streams, and conducted more tests to determine processing rate. Building on the efforts of previous teams the Spring 2012 team refined the previous design and built a field testable solar biomass pyrolysis system for shipment and field test in Ghana in Summer 2012.

abled people must rely on others for assistance. The goal of this project has been to develop a tooth-cleaning system to address the needs of disabled people. During the Spring of 2010, a team of biomedical engineering students developed a system concept for addressing the issues. Their solution consisted of a mouthpiece surrounding the teeth with an array of bristles. This mouthpiece arrangement was made to attach to an off-the-shelf vibrating electric toothbrush. Minimal dexterity was required to operate the device and its performance in cleaning tests looked promising. Subsequent teams of Design Lab students took on the challenge to further optimize the design and developed a novel brush activation mechanism. During Spring 2012, with a clear concept vision in sight, a team of Design Lab students created a working prototype for demonstration at the Center for Disability Services.

Wind Turbine Blade Crack Free Adhesives Sponsored by GE Energy Structural adhesives hold wind turbine blade components in place for the duration of their design life (i.e., 20+ years). Understanding the impact of processing parameters on the properties of wind blade adhesives would significantly improve the de-

Balsa Wood

Adhesive

Fiberglass Shell sign reliability of the bonded joints. The goal of this project was to design and develop test methods to evaluate residual stresses present in the cured adhesives, and run tests to compare current materials with next-generation candidates. Student teams conducted processing trials, identified and validated test methods, and performed comparative design evaluation. The results of this project will be used by GE Energy to improve performance and lower costs of future wind turbine components and designs. New materials will be explored for possible inclusion in next generation products.

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D E S I G N Wind Turbine Aerodynamic Shaping Sponsored by GE Energy Wind turbine blade efficiency is fundamentally limited by the Betz law and reduced by physical and practical constraints on turbine configurations such as drag and blade configuration. One method of increasing blade efficiency is to use the nacelle to redistribute the inflow to take advantage of flow normally lost through

the inboard blade region. This project continued previous work done by Design Lab teams to experimentally test small-scale nacelles for evaluation of analysis methods and provide direction for larger scale experiments by GE. In previous semesters, Design Lab students developed the capability to measure rotor performance. Results were in line with predictions in terms of the relation between rotor efficiency improvements to baseline nacelle size, however, the need for some design upgrades were identified. This year Design Lab teams developed various test improvements applied to a variety of rotor shape designs provided by GE. Teams built and tested the configurations and provided performance curves for the configurations. Additional aerodynamic testing approaches (e.g. flow visualization, wake hot-wire measurements, blade deflection measurements, etc.) were also explored and evaluated.

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Pro-Active Fall Prevention System In Partnership with the Albany Guardian Society The objective of this project has been to develop a Pro-Active Fall Prevention System that integrates state-of-the-art wireless technology and micro sensors to monitor a person’s position, motion, balance and gait and to identify the propensity of someone to potentially experience a fall. Ultimately, the system will reduce the frequency of falls and escalating healthcare costs. The ProActive Fall Prevention System will consist of multiple data collection devices easily located on a person’s body. The data collection devices will include sensors placed at a person’s core or mid-section (for example in a belt) and at the lower extremities (in the shoes or at the ankles). The overall package size for the data collection devices will be minimized to embed the technology unobtrusively in one’s clothing. This year project teams configured an experimental system prototype based upon existing technology and devised experiments to collect and analyze human performance data. Team’s used the system to show correlation between our technology and the existing practical tests.

P R O J E C T

a word and have a software tool process the image and identify the set of closest matches from a font data-

base that contains over 100,000 fonts. This year Design Lab project teams integrated the work of previous efforts and built an end-to-end system focusing on improving the accuracy and speed of the recognition engine and developing software for accessing the engine from a smart phone.

Sustainable Design Metrics and Website In Partnership with the Design Lab

Web-Based Font Classifier System Sponsored by Monotype Imaging Monotype Imaging pioneered mechanical typesetting in the 1880s. Currently, they license typographic solutions to consumer electronics device manufacturers, independent software vendors, creative professionals and leading corporations worldwide. They also provide solutions for software applications and operating systems. The goal of this project was to design and build a tool for assisting graphic and web designers to identify the font used in an existing work, such as a poster, sign, or menu. The ultimate goal is to enable a user to take a picture of

Sustainability analysis is a relatively new trend in industry. The most common practice is to perform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) on the completed product design. There are a number of commercially supported software packages that facilitate LCA, yet challenges remain for more effective tools. Two areas for future development are reducing the number of subjective judgments needed to generate values for the input data to the LCA programs, and assessing the sustainability impact of

H I G H L I G H T S incremental design decisions before design completion. Research by Dr. Jeff Morris has identified new sustainability design metrics that have advantages both for objective evaluation of existing designs and for application to incremental design decisions. Previous Design Lab projects have supported Dr. Morris’ efforts by conducting product design case studies and developing the software architecture and systems to implement a web-based application of the metrics. Efforts this year focused on testing a wider range of products and comparing the results to currently available LCA tools. In addition, improvement to the previous sustainable design metrics website were implemented to make it easier to use and maintain.

DC Motor Drive for Pump Actuator Sponsored by Waters Corporation

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relevant requirements. A simple test fixture was created that mechanically simulated the load placed on the pump by the fluid being moved. An initial control system was designed and partially developed using the FPGA platform, allowing a demonstration of an initial prototype motor and control methodology. In Spring 2012 another student team advanced the design towards an operational servo control system controlled by an Altera FPGA. The team demonstrated a full end-to-end prototype that followed the velocity and position profile prescribed by Waters. The system is adaptable and can be optimized to meet various performance requirements

Northeast Association of the Blind at Albany (NABA) is a private, nonprofit organization that provides rehabilitation, orientation and mobility

CAD Rendering of an auto-align fusing machine

Portable LED Light Box Sponsored by Performance Indicators

Waters Corporation wanted to improve the fluid flow of their Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography products by replacing the current stepper motor drive on the pump ac-

tuators with servo motor drives. This is mainly driven by a need to go to higher pressures while maintaining current flow rates. The implementation approach utilized by student teams was to upgrade the control microprocessor to a newly developed CPU based on a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) with the goal to implement the motor servo control algorithms in the FPGA. In Fall 2011 students explored the problem thoroughly to define and document

Press, Fusing and Facility Layout for the Blind In Partnership with NABA

The objective of this project was to design and build a portable light box that can be used to gather optical data (color point, quantum efficiency, intensity vs. time) for an LED array filtered through an in-development phosphor film. The light box will be used both by engineers in a laboratory setting and sales people at trade conventions to demonstrate the practical effects of the film. This will differ from previous lighting units in that it will use LEDs powered by an AC circuit - a more convenient method than traditional AC-DC conversion power circuitry. The long-term payoff is a reduction in the flicker effect produced by illumination LEDs in order to increase the practicality of LED light bulbs for a consumer market.

training for the blind and visually impaired in upstate New York. NABA also operates a manufacturing facility staffed by blind and visually impaired workers. Products are sold to government agencies, as well as, to a limited number of commercial customers. The overall objective for this project was to increase the number of processes that can be performed safely by blind operators, while increasing throughput, improving ergonomics, and implementing lean manufacturing. Efforts on the project focused primarily on making process conversions to NABA’s press and fusing machines to permit blind workers to take over coverall compression, box loading and neck tab fusing processes currently requiring a sighted worker. Team deliverables included design and construction of a new press fixture and recommendations for how NABA could improve process efficiencies with changes to facility layout and process flow.

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DESIGN L AB PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS Low Cost Permanent Magnet Motor Sponsored by DRS Power Technology, Inc. Permanent Magnet Motors (PMM’s) have been gaining popularity due to advantages in efficiency and power density. However, prices for rare earth magnets, critical to the design of PMM’s have skyrocketed recently due to supply chain restrictions of key elements, such as neodymium, dysprosium, and cobalt. Ferrite magnets contain no rare earth materials, and, as such, are low in cost, but similarly low in power. For both rare earth and ferrite magnets, the need for custom shapes and sizes has a negative cost impact on motor design. If a motor can be designed using only low cost off-the-shelf magnets, then the machine cost and possibly time to market may be improved. The purpose of this project was to develop a per-

manent magnet motor with low cost, off-the-shelf components producing comparable torque, speed and power output to a benchmark motor. Design Lab students generated a large number of concepts and criteria and a process for down selecting alternate motor configurations. Configurations were evaluated on a theoretical and physical basis, using electromagnetic software and constructing prototype motors using a mixture of off-the-shelf components and custom design.

DESIGN EDUCATION RESEARCH AND BEST PRACTICE The Design Lab is known for real world industry sponsored projects, but in between projects, our faculty and staff are continuously looking for opportunities to improve upon instructional methods. The Design Lab constantly looks to better understand the varying interests and capabilities of students and provide a more efficient and effective learning experience.

Learning Assessment A diversity of topics and impromptu just-in-time learning methods is a hallmark of the Design Lab Experience. In this kind of learning environment, knowing how to accurately and fairly provide student assessment is challenging for capstone instructors. Over a period of many years, however, we have developed robust approaches that have been captured and shared in an article appearing in the International Journal of Engineering Education entitled “Holistic

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Approach for Student Assessment in Project-Based Multidisciplinary Engineering Capstone Design” coauthored by Mark Steiner, Junichi Kanai, Rich Alben, Lester Gerhardt and Cheng Hsu. The same group of authors also teamed up to write a paper entitled “Analysis of Engineering Capstone Design Student Reflective Memos: What Students Say and What They Don’t Say”. This paper was published in the Proceedings of the 118th ASEE Annual Conference in June 2011. The paper received recognition as a finalist for best paper by the ASEE Design in Engineering Education Division at the 2011 ASEE Annual Conference held in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Keeping Us Safe Maintaining a safe work environment for project-based instruction is a critical aspect to our success in the Design Lab. For many years, Sam Chiappone, Manager of Fabrication

and Shop Operations in the School of Engineering, and Junichi Kanai, Associate Director of the Design Lab have worked closely with Rensselaer’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety to insure a safe learning experience for our students. The Safety Committee meets every semester to review progress and opportunities to improve safety policies and procedures. Last year a paper entitled “Safety Policies and Procedures for Engineering Design Courses” was authored by Junichi Kanai and Sam Chiappone and published in the Proceedings of the 118th ASEE Annual Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.

DESIGN LAB NEWS Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center and Design Lab Collaboration The Design Lab again participated in the National Capstone Design Conference that was held at the University of Illinois. Dr. Junichi Kanai, Associate Director of the Design Lab and Professor of Practice in ECSE served on the organizing committee. The theme of the conference was industry involvement. The goal of the Capstone Design Conference is to provide a forum for engineering and applied science faculty to share ideas about improving design-based capstone courses. The 2012 conference included panel discussions, interactive poster presentations, workshops, keynote sessions and many opportunities for networking. Go to: http:// www.capstoneconf.org for more information.

The Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (ERC) at Rensselaer has participated in several Design Lab projects over the past several years. Last year (2010-11), the ERC collaborated with the Design Lab on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Virtual Window project sponsored by St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany to develop a demonstration prototype for St. Peter’s Hospital. The project involved 19 senior capstone students on Smart Lighting concepts over two semesters and resulted in delivery of a system demonstration that would serve as a basis for St. Peter’s new ICU. The project generated attention on the part of Smart Lighting ERC member companies in the area of healthy solid-state lighting.

Making Us Look Good: The Manufacturing Network at Rensselaer As students develop their design concepts, there comes a time when they move to create system prototypes for test and evaluation purposes. Thanks to the leadership of Sam Chiappone, Manager of Fabrication and Prototyping in the School of Engineering, we have the resources to deliver tangible results via the Manufacturing Network (see http:// manufacturing.eng.rpi.edu/). In addition to the Design Lab’s Haas Technical Center, Sam runs the Student Machine Shop and the Manufacturing Innovation Learning Laboratory (formerly called the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory). He draws upon a vast network of manufacturing resources to help our students produce professional quality design prototypes. Sam makes us look good!

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