Undergraduate Research Participation in Electrical Engineering

The Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Maine will offer ten undergraduate students the opportunity to participate in research. The available research projects include: 1. Microwave Acoustic solid State Sensors, 2. Robotics, Computer Vision and Neural Processing, 3. Communications Devices and Applications, 4. Motion Control, 5. Microprocessing/Instrumentation Applications, 6. Macroscopic and Microscopic Characterization of Metallic Films, and 7. Power Systems Applications. in addition to extensive University of Maine facilities, the students will also have access to facilities at nearby industries such as Bangor Hydro Electric Power and Central Maine Power Companies, James River, Champion and Scott paper Companies, Digital Equipment Corporation and National Semiconductor during the conduct of their research experience

REU Site: Sensor Science and Engineering

This REU award for a Site on Sensors Science and Engineering supports 9 engineering and science students each year for three years in a 10-week summer research experience at the University of Maine. Students conduct research advancing their knowledge of engineering, chemistry, physics, and/or biology. The participants work with eleven UMaine researchers and benefit from access to specialized sensor science and engineering research facilities such as the Laboratory for Surface Science and Technology and National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis. The students are treated as junior colleagues and by the end of the summer function at least at the level of typical first-year graduate students. REU participants interact with faculty research mentors, graduate students, post-docs, technicians, visiting scientists, and middle- and high-school teachers. Such interactions help the students develop strong communication skills and the ability to work across disciplines as required in a growing number of professional environments. REU participants complete formal courses, INT 398, Undergraduate Research Participation, and ECE 465, Introduction to Sensors, make a presentation within a context similar to a national or international conference, and share results from their research experience at a middle or high school. Intellectual merit: The focus on sensor science and engineering research and interdisciplinary problem-solving is novel and contributes to the program\u27s intellectual merit. This focus builds on substantial research strengths at UMaine that have led to NSF-funded GK-12 (Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education) and RET (Research Experiences for Teachers) programs in sensor science and engineering. This program capitalizes upon past success with undergraduate training activities and efficiency in student recruitment and selection, assignment to faculty mentors, research supervision, and follow-up. Broader Impacts: Undergraduates utilize new knowledge to solve real-life research problems that impact society. This REU site specifically recruits women and minorities and provides research experiences for students from non-PhD-granting institutions. Three of the 11 senior research personnel are women who are especially well qualified to mentor female students. The site enhances the Nation\u27s infrastructure for research and education by bringing together faculty and students from diverse disciplines under the intellectual umbrella of sensor science and engineering. The program activities also ensure that multi-user facilities are sites of research and mentoring for significant numbers of science and engineering students. Specific research results are disseminated through campus presentations and more broadly through professional journals and symposia, enhancing scientific and technological understanding. Based on their interaction with RET participants and GK-12 fellows during their on-campus research assignments, REU participants share their research experiences with middle and high school students and teachers. Society will benefit as these undergraduates, as a result of their research experiences, choose to continue in graduate school or to excel in technologically and scientifically challenging careers that advance such areas as homeland security, food safety, transportation, communications, and medicine. This site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program

GK-12: Sensors!

The University of Maine (UMaine) College of Engineering proposes to partner with Bangor High School (BHS) to develop a model university/K-12 partnership based on the disciplinary theme of sensors. The proposed model integrates education and research for the benefit of BHS students and teachers, and graduate and advanced undergraduate students, and faculty, within the College of Engineering at UMaine. GK-12 Sensors! will involve faculty and students from the chemical, biological, electrical, computer, mechanical, civil/environmental, and spatial information engineering programs at the University of Maine. Five advanced undergraduate and ten graduate students will serve as GK-12 Sensor Fellows. Faculty members recognized for their teaching and research expertise in sensor-related areas will represent each of the major Engineering programs at UMaine. High school teachers and students will benefit from the integration of cutting-edge, standards-based STEM content within a variety of classes and extramural activities such as students competitions. Undergraduate and graduate students, and faculty will gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities of K-12 education, while improving their communication and teaching skills. Industry involvement is also a key component of the proposed program. A variety of technologies, including ATM, as well as traditional media and presentations will disseminate best practices from GK-12: Sensors! across Maine and the nation. This project is receiving partial support from the Engineering Directorate

REU Site: Sensor Science and Engineering

This three-year REU site program at the University of Maine will engage eight undergraduates per year in hands-on research experiences in sensor science and engineering. The REU program will be integrated with the PIs\u27 Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education (GK-12) and Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) programs. REU participants will have the opportunity to interact with faculty research mentors, graduate students, post-docs, technicians, visiting scientists, and middle and high school teachers. REU students, GK-12 fellows, IGERT fellows, and RET participants will participate in field trips to Maine companies that perform sensor research such as The Jackson Laboratory and Spectral Solutions. They will also participate in weekly seminars in the area of sensors given by invited speakers, faculty research mentors, graduate students, and visiting scientists. Weekend recreational activities will be an integral part of the program and will enhance the REU students\u27 sense of community and improve their research group dynamics. In addition to the research experience, REU students will participate in two complementary courses, INT 398 Undergraduate Research Participation and ECE 465 Introduction to Sensors. Each student will receive three credits for each course. At the end of the research experience, students will present their research in conference format and submit a written report or co-author paper(s) for publication in peer-reviewed journals and/or symposia. Recruitment efforts will be targeted to women and minorities and students at non-PhD granting institutions. Research results will be disseminated through campus presentations and more broadly through professional journals and symposia. Society will benefit as undergraduates, as a result of their participation in their research experiences, choose to continue in graduate school or to excel in technologically and scientifically challenging careers that advance such areas as homeland security, food safety, transportation, communications, and medicine

RET Site: Sensors!

This award provides funding for a 3 year standard award to support a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) Site program at the University of Maine entitled, RET Site: Sensors!, under the direction of Dr. John F. Vetelino. This site will provide 10 high school teachers per year from rural Maine with 8-week summer research experiences involving intensive, team-based sensor research projects with an intellectual focus on sensor theory, design fabrication, testing, and/or applications

EXP-SA: A Lateral Field Excited Acoustic Wave Sensor for Peroxide-Based Explosives

Intellectual Merit:The candidate films will be functionalized on the quartz surface of the LFE sensing platform and exposed to peroxide-based IEDs and the materials used to fabricate them under simulated conditions. Critical sensor element properties such as the response level, response time, detection limit, resolution, and linearity will be measured and the selectivity will be determined by exposing the sensor to known concentrations of chemical simulants. In addition the admittance of each sensor element will be measured to isolate mechanical and electrical property changes in the film so as to identify the unique chemical signature of each analyte and provide a higher degree of selectivity. Sensor electronics will be designed and fabricated resulting in a handheld electronic unit. The sensor electronics will simultaneously process the output from five LFE sensing elements and provide a digital readout. Finally, the prototype sensor unit will be assembled and tested for the detection of PBEs and the materials commonly used to fabricate them.Broader Impacts:The development of a detector for PBEs will demonstrate that cutting edge research at the University of Maine will benefit homeland security, the military. A successful demonstration of a field deployable detector for PBEs will motivate the development and commercialization, by small sensor businesses, of similar sensors for homeland security, military, health, agricultural, automotive, and environmental applications

Track 2 GK-12: Sensors!

This proposal describes a Track 2 project developed by the University of Maine in collaboration with several Maine public school systems in urban, suburban, and rural communities to capitalize upon UMaine\u27s interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art sensor science and engineering resources to establish strong partnerships with middle and high schools, benefiting GK-12 fellows, teachers, middle and high school students, senior personnel, and business and community stakeholders. Focusing on sensor science and engineering, the PI, Dr. Vetelino is carefully integrating NSF RET, GK-12, REU, and IGERT programs, reaching students from middle school through the Ph.D. The synergy among the PI\u27s education and research programs provides a national model on how to effectively integrate an emerging interdisciplinary research area such as sensors with education, particularly within a rural and economically depressed region

SENSORS: A Novel Lateral Field Excited Acoustic Wave Sensor for Chemical and Biological Agents

Sensors for the sensitive and selective detection of chemical agents and a biological agent are being developed. The sensor structure consists of a piezoelectric platform that is coated with a film that selectively sorbs a chemical or biological agent of interest. The sensitivity of the sensor is embodied in the sensor platform, which consists of a quartz crystal that is excited by a lateral electric field. The exciting electrodes are placed opposite to the sensing surface, and the sensing film is attached directly to the sensor platform. This arrangement is in contrast to the standard quartz microbalance (QCM), where the sensing surface is normally coated with a gold film, and it offers increased sensitivity along with selectivity. The high sensitivity exhibited by this novel lateral-field-excited (LFE) QCM is attributed to the fact that the sensor can measure both electrical and mechanical property changes in the sensing film caused by the sorbed chemical or biological agent. The selectivity of the LFE-QCM sensor is obtained by performing molecular filtering directly in the sensing film. In this specific project the LFE-QCM sensor is being designed to detect two specific chemicals and one biological agent. The target chemicals are dimethyl phosponate (DMMP), which simulates VX and G nerve agents, and an organophosphate pesticide that is chemically similar to many other chemical-warfare agents. The biological agent is E. coli O157:H7, which could appear in food or water supplies. In order to realize the desired chemical and biological sensors, the research team is exploring several issues relating to the LFE-QCM platform and the sensing film. These issues include the optimum electrode geometry in the LFE-QCM platform, the development of novel polymer and silica films for the detection of organophosphates in water, and the coupling of E. coli antibodies to the sensing surface. Homeland security as well as environmental and industrial health concerns dictate that improved chemical and biological sensors must be developed and deployed. After various sorbate-selective films have been attached to the LFE-QCM surface, they will be exposed to the chemical simulants and the biological agent in order to determine the sensing properties. It is anticipated that the proposed work on these organo-phosphorus chemicals and E. coli can be extended to development of selective sensors for other significant chemical and biological agents. In addition, by coupling with existing GK-12 and REU programs, this project will contribute to the education of a number of students and teachers who will participate in the research program

Aperture averaging effects on the probability density of irradiance fluctuations in moderate-to-strong turbulence

The lognormal (LN) and gamma–gamma (GG) distributions are compared to simulated and experimental data of the irradiance fluctuations of a Gaussian beam wave propagating through the atmosphere along a horizontal path, near the ground, in the moderate-to-strong turbulence regime. Irradiance data were collected simultaneously at three receiving apertures of different sizes. Atmospheric parameters were inferred from the measurements and scintillation theory and were used to develop the parameters for the theoretical probability density functions. Numerical simulations were produced with the same Cn 2 value as the experimental data. Aperture-averaging effects were investigated by comparing the irradiance distributions for the three apertures at two different values of the structure parameter Cn 2 , and, hence, different values of the coherence radius 0. For the moderate-to-strong fluctuation regime, the GG distribution provides a good fit to the irradiance fluctuations collected by finite-sized apertures that are significantly smaller than 0. For apertures larger than or equal to 0, the irradiance fluctuations appear to be LN distributed

Acquisition of a Multi-User Thin Film Synthesis and Processing Facility

A state-of-the-art advanced materials synthesis and processing facility focusing on the growth and fabrication of ceramic- based thin film materials will be funded with the assistance of the Academic Research Infrastructure Program. The facility will include a multi-technique thin film materials synthesis chamber equipped with a microwave plasma source, effusion cells, electron beam evaporators, magnetron sputter sources, and a Kauffman ion source. Characterization capabilities will include in-situ reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), mass spectrometry for controlling growth processes, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and a novel Hall probe for in- situ film characterization. Three major areas of research will be impacted significantly by the facility, namely 1) solid state micro-sensors, 2) nanomechanics of materials, and 3) surfaces and interfaces in hetero-epitaxial oxide systems. In the sensor work, which has connections with local industry, the synthesis and processing of well-defined doped metal-oxide films will be developed with the goal of understanding and controlling the molecular scale mechanisms by which surface microstructure, dopant type, and operating temperature influence sensor performance. A broad based advanced materials synthesis and processing facility for the growth and fabrication of ceramic-based thin films will be operated for the study of solid state microsensors based on metal-oxide ceramic films. The nanomechanics of these ceramic thin films will be studied, as well as the surfaces and interfaces occurring in heteroepitaxial oxide systems