Faculty will present their scholarly projects at the Fall Forum on Wednesday, Nov. 20 in the Admissions Event Center in the Campus Center from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Learn more in the project abstracts below.
Protracted Leave Projects
Neurodiversity at MSOE
Dr. Jan L. Fertig (HSC)
The “Neurodiversity at MSOE” study was inspired by curiosity about aspects of engineering that attract and engage neurodivergent students. The term “neurodiversity” describes a social movement and people who diverge from average in how their brains work, for example those with dyslexia, ADHD or autism. Despite the attraction of such students to engineering careers, they are significantly more likely than their neurotypical counterparts to be unemployed or working in positions below their talents and capabilities. Engineering fields are losing out on employees who could play valuable roles and make unique contributions while neurodivergent college students might be supported in ways assisted through greater awareness. It is the thesis of this endeavor that neurodivergent individuals and engineering disciplines have much to gain from a partnership nurtured by a college experience that prepares them to work together to achieve great heights. With this opportunity comes a challenge for students who struggle to achieve a sense of belonging, complicated by lingering myths about their fitness to attend college and succeed in life. Supported by responses of self-identified neurodivergent engineering collegians to a simple combined quantitative and qualitative survey, this work paints a vivid portrait of the challenges and rewards of engineering students whose minds function uniquely to promote deeper understanding among college professionals interested in advocating for them. Inspired by the words of neurodivergent students themselves, recommendations are advanced for how their needs can be better supported so that they can achieve greater success in a world to which they aspire to contribute.
Development of a Materials Science eBook
Dr. Matt Panhans (ME)
Digital textbooks have caused a major shift in higher education as students rarely purchase print copies. Most eBooks from traditional publishers are simply PDF versions of print textbooks and do not take full advantage of what digital books can offer such as customization to target audiences and enhanced visuals. This work developed three eBook chapters addressing tensile, impact, and hardness testing of materials targeted at mechanical engineering students. In addition, the question of authoring or incorporating available open-source material known as Open Educational Resources (OER), was investigated. Seven major resources for OER materials were identified for faculty who would like to provide no-cost textbooks to students. For those faculty who would like to explore authorship, both self-authoring and traditional were investigated and numerous resources are identified.
Foundations of Reconfigurable Mechanism Design Theory
Dr. Brian Slaboch (ME)
Mechanisms with variable topology (MVTs) are mechanical mechanisms in which their type of kinematic pair (e.g., rotational joint or translational joint), or representative orientation, automatically changes during the mechanism’s motion. Traditionally, engineers have been trained to design mechanisms with a fixed topology, in which the mechanism’s joint types (e.g., rotational or translational) remain unchanged as the mechanism moves from one configuration to another. MVTs remove this limitation, allowing for adaptable mechanisms that are lightweight, low cost, and have low power consumption. In this protracted leave work, a proposal, “Collaborative Research: A Computational Design Methodology for Four-Bar Mechanisms with Variable Topology,” was submitted to the National Science Foundation Engineering Design and Systems Engineering program related to developing new mathematical theory to automatically synthesize four-bar MVTs. The proposal is collaborative between MSOE and Marquette University. In addition to writing and submitting the NSF grant, multiple conference papers were accepted for publication and presented at national conferences.
Summer Development Projects
In Real Life: an introductory text for undergraduate STEM students
Dr. Kim Baker (HSC)
Developing Faculty Expertise in TinyML
Dr. Sebastian Berisha (CSSE)
Tiny machine learning (TinyML) has emerged as a transformative paradigm in artificial intelligence, enabling the deployment of machine learning models on resource-constrained devices without continuous cloud connectivity. This project focused on addressing the burgeoning demand for TinyML education among corporate partners and integrating this cuting-edge technology into graduate curricula at MSOE. Recognizing the gap in faculty expertise, we initiated a collaboration to develop an educational module on TinyML. We designed a module that incorporates hands-on laboratory assignments to provide practical experience with TinyML concepts. This initiative aims to enhance faculty expertise, develop industry-relevant skills, and explore innovative teaching methods. Future directions include the potential for developing a new course in this area and exploring research opportunities and publications in the realm of pedagogy and TinyML integration.
McNeely Prison Education Consortium (MPEC): Course and Network Development
Dr. Michael Carriere (HSC) and Ms. Bridgette Binczak (HSC)
Professor Michael Carriere will teach "Urban Ecology: A History" at the Racine Correctional Institution (RCI) during spring 2024. This course will be offered through the McNeely Prison Education Consortium (MPEC), a collective endeavor to offer college-level courses in detention facilities across southwestern Wisconsin. This will be MSOE's first offering through MPEC.
This Summer Professional Development Grant allowed Professor Carriere and Bridgette Binczak to, first and foremost, successfully create the syllabus and course delivery strategy for the RCI course. Yet the grant also allowed Binczak the opportunity to develop systems of communication between representatives from MPEC, MSOE, and RCI. These networks will help MPEC continue to grow - with MSOE playing an important role in this growth.
Justifying Memory
Dr. Matthew Frise (HSC)
Memory is key to our having support for beliefs. It is not obvious how memory provides this support. In this project I examine many philosophical theories that attempt to explain the epistemological limits and powers of memory. A traditional view is that our epistemic justification from memory in the present directly depends, in part or primarily, on the past. I reject this view, arguing that just the way the present is directly matters for the justification we have from memory now. Another traditional view is that our justification from memory is best accounted for by theories on which justification directly depends on features of the world external to the mind. I argue that the mental life suffices to account for memory justification. I then appeal to the tip of the tongue phenomenon to argue that just a portion of the mental matters for memory justification: what the subject internally accesses or is conscious of. The best epistemology of memory turns out to support a package of extreme and untraditional views.
Rust: Application of a Memory Safe Programming Languages to the Embedded Systems
Dr. Adam Livingston (ECBE)
The increasing prevalence of memory-based security vulnerabilities in embedded systems has prompted a shift towards memory-safe programming languages. This paper explores the application of Rust, a memory-safe compiled language, in the context of embedded systems development. Rust’s unique memory management system, which eliminates the need for garbage collection and prevents common memory errors through strict compile-time checks, positions it as a strong candidate for safer embedded programming. The paper examines Rust’s capabilities, including its efficient handling of memory through ownership and borrowing principles, and its potential to bridge the gap between high-level languages like Python and low-level languages like C. Additionally, the paper discusses the current state of Rust’s development environments, hardware abstraction libraries, and its adoption in academia and industry. Despite some challenges, such as the steep learning curve and lack of standardization, Rust shows promise for future integration into embedded systems curricula and industry practices. The findings suggest that while Rust is not yet ready to replace traditional languages like C and C++ entirely, it offers significant advantages for developing secure and efficient embedded applications.
Development of a Pneumatic Platform for Learning Fluid Power and Controls
Dr. Luis Rodriguez (ME)
A proposal to the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) was submitted to create a low-cost pneumatic educational platform for teaching fluid power and control concepts. Preliminary research reviewed existing solutions, identified key components, and proposed an initial design. The grant was awarded for the upcoming academic year and will fund the involvement of two undergraduate students in the platform's development.
Experiment, Philosophy, and the Transmission of Knowledge
Dr. Aaron Spink (HSC)
I spent the month of August searching for and documenting philosophical and scientific manuscripts in several archives in France. My initial interest was in finding a set of course notes from the conférences of a famed follower of René Descartes, Pierre-Sylvain Régis, one of the initial members of the renewed Académie des Sciences in 1699. Unfortunately, this aspect of the project failed. However, I had many other targets for this research trip and found a wide range of other documents related to early Cartesianism in the French context. Among which, I found several unpublished responses to works published by Jacques Rohault, another celebrated Cartesian, who was well known for his weekly demonstrations and discussions of experimental results, including pioneering barometric experiments. But most importantly, I was able to track down hundreds of manuscript pages from René Le Bossu; a lesser known Cartesian who both criticized and defended Jaques Rohault, René Descartes, as well as other prominent intellectuals of the day. Le Bossu was interested in popular theories of animal motion and life, as well as new theories of the Eucharist, which relied on cutting edge developments in physics in the 17th century. I was able to photograph hundreds of pages of manuscript pages of a planned treatise, as well as many pages of correspondence with other intellectuals in France, which should give good insight into the intellectual currents surrounding the rapid adoption of Cartesianism in France. I also found several summaries of conférences regarding the philosophy of Descartes, morals, and animals convened by Mr. l’abbé de Bordelot. In all, I collected several thousand photographs that I will analyze over the next several years. The fruits of this study should help clarify the development and eventual decline of Cartesian science, as well as chart unappreciated and novel approaches to philosophical and scientific problems in the 17th century.
