VHDL Implementation of High Performance and Dynamically Configured Multi-port Cache Memory

This project presents the implementation of 64x64 multi-port dynamically configured SRAM in VHDL (VHSIC hardware description language). It employs isolation nodes and dynamic memory partitioning algorithm to facilitate simultaneous multi-port accesses without duplicating bit-lines. VHDL test-bench is developed to verify the functionality of the dynamically configured memory. Results demonstrate that critical memory operations such as "read miss", "write miss" and "write bypass" can be performed using newly proposed low power, area efficient dynamically configured memory

Embedding Environmental Ethics in Engineering Courses

This work focuses on embedding ethics topics in electrical and biomedical engineering courses. A dedicated course titled Engineering Ethics that existed in the curriculum has been replaced in the department recently by embedding ethics topics into several courses. This work focuses on including topics in the area of environmental ethics into two courses, Electric circuits and Biosensors. It is very relevant as it introduces students to current consumerism and its environmental impact. The global world relies on handheld devices that use rechargeable batteries. There is a need to educate public on the proper disposal of them. Some engineering students are unaware of environmental impact of the improper disposal of batteries and other electronic products and discard them as normal waste. The first course on electric circuits is taken by all engineering majors. Energy from mobile device batteries is discussed at the start of the course along with the need for safe disposal. A project to research on safe disposal regionally and internationally is assigned. The project includes students to survey family members and friends on disposal practices and on the need for advocacy and social responsibility. A survey of students on impact of this assignment will be presented here. Similarly, topics relevant to the study of environmental contamination are covered in the Biosensors course. Students are assigned a project on the use of biosensors to study environmental toxins and to survey family and friends on practices of hazardous waste disposal. A survey of the students on its impact will be presented

Chirality Based Seperation of Carbon Nanotubes by Analyzing the Specific Interaction With the AMB-1 Flagellin Derived Tripeptide

Isaac et. al (2015) studied the interaction between the flagellum of AMB-1 and different chirality CNTs (m-CNT and s-CNT). The observations through Molecular Dynamics simulations demonstrated that the glycine residues in D3 domain of flagellum interacts with m-CNT whereas such an interaction with s-CNT is absent. The specific interaction of glycine with m-CNT can lead to the development of a biological method for chirality based CNT sorting. Hence, further studies were required to determine the effect of the residues flanking glycine on it’s interaction with m-CNT. The type of interactions and the extent of interaction of different combinations of polar and non-polar amino acid residues flanking glycine were conducted. Hence, the role of glycine with two flanking amino acid residues (tripeptide) is substantiated to determine it’s specific interaction with m-CNT through the study of interaction energy and RMSD of the middle glycine and the flanking residues towards the adsorption of the tripeptide onto m-CNT

Effect of Microgravity on Nanoparticle-Cellular Interaction

A cell contains numerous proteins on its surface and in the cytoplasm that carry out a variety of functions. Maleimide – functionalized Graphene quantum dots (m-GQDs) have the ability to attach or “tag” both cell surface and intracellular proteins in the gravitational setting. Such quantum dots have photoluminescent properties, which can be utilized for tagging the cysteine residue on the proteins and hence in the bio-imaging applications of these proteins. This experiment proposes whether m-GQDs will have a stable binding to cellular proteins on Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) mammalian cells under the influence of microgravity. If this occurs, it can provide a wide variety of applications for studying the effects of micro gravity on a physiological system in the way proteins behave compared to a gravitational setting. The basic principle of this procedure can be further utilized to study many more cellular processes under the influence of microgravity by simply tracking these “tagged” cellular proteins under a fluorescence microscope

Directed Self-Assembly of Magnetite Through Electrospinning With Potential Applications in Nanopatterning

Electrospinning is a unique method for producing micro and nano sized polymeric nanofibers consisting of high surface area, porosity and flexibility. It can further be utilized for producing nano-patterns in applications such as biosensors, magnetic recording and bioelectronics. Magnetite (Fe3O4) from the spinel group is the most magnetically natural mineral found on earth and it has been successfully used as a catalyst for the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). This work focuses on a consistent synthesis of magnetite nanopatterns for selective growth of CNTs for potential applications in bioelectronics

A Novel Use of Electrospining for Nanopatterning of Bio-Sequestered Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

In this research on creating controlled nanopatterns, a novel technique using electrospinning of iron oxide nanoparticles is being investigated, where nanopatterns of biologically sequestered magnetite are proposed. This is because electrospinning is normally used in the fabrication of nanofibers governed by the electrical forces on the surface of the precursor organic fluids thereby producing polymer filaments using an electrostatic force. This electrospinning technique can serve various purposes such as the fine control of the fiber diameters, the production of a defect-free or defect-controllable fiber surface, and the formation of continuous single nanofibers. The electrospinning products are currently being used in applications such as fabrication of scaffolds in tissue engineering, substrates for culturing numerous biological cellular structures and various biosensing applications

Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube & Polypyrrole Nanocomposite and its Interactions with AMB-1 Bacteria

Faculty Research Day 2018: Graduate Student Poster 3rd PlaceBeing able to easily manufacture pristine carbon nanotube (CNT) is a difficult problem that we face today. There are many different chirality (twists) that the carbon nanotubes orient themselves in making them either more metallic or semi-conducting in nature. Being able to separate these two types is very important to electronic industries because semi-conducting carbon nanotubes are better suited for devices such as transistors. Magnetospirillum magneticum (AMB-1) is a bacteria that can be used through magnetotaxis for controlled assembly of CNT based devices. It has been shown that there are favorable interactions between the MSP-1 surface protein and flagellin protein from AMB-1 with only semi-conducting carbon nanotubes1 through glycine and its flanking residues. In order to better study this interaction, this work is on the fabrication of a free standing nanocomposite carbon nanotube and polypyrrole (Ppy) film using cyclic voltammetry. This technique electro-polymerizes the pyrrole monomer into Ppy through a series of oxidation and reduction reactions along with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT) to be deposited on an electrode. It has been shown before that graphene, pyrrole, and carbon nanotubes can form a film together using cyclic voltammetry2. In general, carbon nanotubes have a difficult time being suspended in water because they are non-polar (hydrophobic), which challenges the process of making the films containing only CNTs. The specific aim of this project is to look at the interactions between AMB-1 and MWNT/Ppy film using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). In order to have large number of interactions between AMB-1 and CNT only, we are working to find the least amount of pyrrole needed to make the film containing the most amount of CNTs

Role of Surface Proteins in Magnetotaxis-based Applications

Magnetospirillum magneticum (AMB-1) are a species of magnetotactic bacteria that are capable of orienting along the earth’s magnetic field lines through their organelles called magnetosomes. Many studies have shown that certain engineered-bacteria can infect the tumor cells resulting in a controlled death of a tumor. This work deals with a technique utilizing AMB-1 along a predefined path through magnetotaxis, which can pave a way for selective doping as well as isolation of the tumor cells from a group of healthy cells through a magnetic invasive assay (MIA). For such a control, tiny mesh of vertical electrical coils each having a diameter of ~ 5 mm is fabricated, which establishes the path for the bacteria to move along the magnetic field lines. The molecular dynamics simulations at the interface of the bacterial cell surface proteins (MSP-1 & flagellin) and Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell surface containing cytoplasmic and extracellular proteins (BSG, B2M, SDC1, AIMP1, and FOS) will establish an association between the invading AMB-1 and the host CHO cells. The experimental demonstration will involve the CHO invasion by the AMB-1 and isolation of selected CHO cells. Statistical analysis along with the relevant electron and force microscopy data will confirm the number of AMB-1 and CHO cells involved before and after invasion and the role of directional control

Efficient Use of Bio-Inspired Nanofabrication in Soft Electronics

Self-assembly plays an important role in the formation of different nanostructures either organic or inorganic. Controlled assembly of molecules into higher ordered hierarchical structures on the other hand require a thorough insight into the interactive forces that lie behind such an assembly. The interface between organic and inorganic materials is thus of primary significance when it comes to the tasks of selective deposition and assembly of inorganic molecules through organic agents. One of the bacterial species that belong to the class α-proteobacteria called Magnetospirillum magneticum (classified as AMB-1) is investigated in this study and it is found that this species is able to fulfill the requirements that are imposed by the complexity of the selective deposition and controlled assembly tasks. AMB-1 contain single-domain crystals of magnetite (Fe3O4) called magnetosomes that sense the external magnetic field that is further utilized for cellular displacement (magnetotaxis) through lash-like cellular appendages called flagella. The two flagella located at the proximal and distal ends of the cell consists of a protein monomer flagellin. Individual flagellin in turn that are located on the periphery of each of the flagellum's central channel consists of four sub-domains, two inner domains (D0, D1) made up of alpha helices and two outer domains (D2, D3) made up of beta sheets. However, it is the domain D3 that is exposed to the surrounding micro-environment, thereby interacting with the components to be selectively deposited, in this case, carbon nanotubes (CNT). Based on the electromagnetic and molecular dynamics simulations and the real-time experimental analysis involving optical microscopy utilizing 50 micron diameter conductor (44AWG) magnetic coils as directional magnetic field generation centers to visualize the motion of free as well as loaded AMB-1 as well as electron microscopy (TEM & SEM) to analyze the interactive forces between CNT and AMB-1 flagellum, it is found that once the domain D3 is functionalized with either metallic (m-) or semiconducting (s-) carbon nanotubes (CNT), the AMB-1 cell can be used as an efficient carrier for selective deposition tasks. Two aspects that are of particular interest are the phenomenal control of direction exhibited by AMB-1 using locally generated magnetic field and the efficient interactive forces in the form of short range forces (van der Waals, hydrophobic interactions and hydrogen bonds) and long range forces (electrostatic interactions) between m-CNT or s-CNT and D3. Thus, it is recognized that a compound semiconductor manufacturing technology involving bacterial carriers and carbon-based materials such as carbon nanotubes would be a desirable choice in the future

Gold Nanoparticles and Sirna Complex for Targeted Drug Delivery

This poster is aimed at discussing the various interactions taking place in a SiRNA and gold nanoparticle (SiRNA- AuNp) complex with respect to time. SiRNA are widely used in the field of targeted drug delivery systems due to their higher specificity. The SiRNA- AuNp complex is know to have a higher transfection efficiency compared to that of the traditional methods