A reconfigurable tactile display based on polymer MEMS technology

This research focuses on the development of polymer microfabrication technologies for the realization of two major components of a pneumatic tactile display: a microactuator array and a complementary microvalve (control) array. The concept, fabrication, and characterization of a kinematically-stabilized polymeric microbubble actuator (¡°endoskeletal microbubble actuator¡±) were presented. A systematic design and modeling procedure was carried out to generate an optimized geometry of the corrugated diaphragm to satisfy membrane deflection, force, and stability requirements set forth by the tactile display goals. A refreshable Braille cell as a tactile display prototype has been developed based on a 2x3 endoskeletal microbubble array and an array of commercial valves. The prototype can provide both a static display (which meets the displacement and force requirement of a Braille display) and vibratory tactile sensations. Along with the above capabilities, the device was designed to meet the criteria of lightness and compactness to permit portable operation. The design is scalable with respect to the number of tactile actuators while still being simple to fabricate. In order to further reduce the size and cost of the tactile display, a microvalve array can be integrated into the tactile display system to control the pneumatic fluid that actuates the microbubble actuator. A piezoelectrically-driven and hydraulically-amplified polymer microvalve has been designed, fabricated, and tested. An incompressible elastomer was used as a solid hydraulic medium to convert the small axial displacement of a piezoelectric actuator into a large valve head stroke while maintaining a large blocking force. The function of the microvalve as an on-off switch for a pneumatic microbubble tactile actuator was demonstrated. To further reduce the cost of the microvalve, a laterally-stacked multilayer PZT actuator has been fabricated using diced PZT multilayer, high aspect ratio SU-8 photolithography, and molding of electrically conductive polymer composite electrodes.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Allen,Mark; Committee Member: Bucknall,David; Committee Member: Book,Wayne; Committee Member: Griffin,Anselm; Committee Member: Yao,Donggan

Essays on Consumer Search and A+B Auctions

This dissertation consists of two chapters. The first paper estimates demand for gasoline in the presence of two types of imperfect price information: ex-ante uncertainty about each station\u27s price and uncertainty about the distribution of all stations\u27 prices. Volatile wholesale cost causes retail gasoline prices to fluctuate regularly, making it difficult for consumers to remain aware of the overall price level in the market or the stations offering the lowest price. In this article, I develop a model in which consumers formulate their prior belief of the current price distribution using the prices observed during past driving trips, and then Bayesian update their beliefs with each new price observed, before deciding whether to purchase gasoline or continue searching for a cheaper price. I estimate this model by utilizing a unique data set of station-level daily gasoline sales and prices, combined with data on the empirical distribution of various traffic flows. My empirical results suggest that consumers are able to learn about the overall price increases or decreases resulting from the wholesale cost movements relatively quickly. In addition, I find that price distribution uncertainty is the primary component of imperfect price information, and if it were eliminated, consumers could achieve 70 percent of the total savings that could be realized by having perfect price information. Furthermore, by incorporating travel patterns, the estimation suggests that cross-price elasticity between two stations depends largely on the amount of common traffic they share. My second paper studies the effect of complexity in multi-dimensional bidding and competition in A+B (price + quality) auctions using a laboratory experiment. I examine whether the behaviors of human bidders are consistent with the predictions of two alternative models of auctions: the Bayes-Nash Equilibrium model and the Quantal Response Equilibrium (QRE) model. I extend the QRE framework to multi-dimensional A+B auctions. The results indicate that the QRE model, as a generalization of the rational models of behavior by allowing decision making errors, predicts bidder behaviors well across different treatments as the number of bidders and the dimensionality of the bid vary

Ks, Lambda and Xi production at intermediate to high pT from Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 39, 11.5 and 7.7 GeV

We report on the pT dependence of nuclear modification factors ($R_{CP}$) for Ks, Lambda, Xi and the Anti-Lambda/Ks ratios at mid-rapidity from Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 39, 11.5 and 7.7 GeV. At \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 39 GeV, the $R_{CP}$ data shows a baryon/meson separation at intermediate pT and a suppression for Ks for pT up to 4.5 GeV/$c$; the Anti-Lambda/Ks shows baryon enhancement in the most central collisions. However, at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 11.5 and 7.7 GeV, $R_{CP}$ shows much less baryon/meson separation and Anti-Lambda/Ks shows almost no baryon enhancement. These observations indicate that the matter created in Au+Au collisions at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 11.5 or 7.7 GeV might be distinct from that created at \sqrt{s_{NN}} = 39 GeV.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of 7th International Workshop on Critical Point and Onset of Deconfinement (CPOD2011), Wuhan, China, Nov. 7-11, 201

Observation of vacancy-induced suppression of electronic cooling in defected graphene

Previous studies of electron-phonon interaction in impure graphene have found that static disorder can give rise to an enhancement of electronic cooling. We investigate the effect of dynamic disorder and observe over an order of magnitude suppression of electronic cooling compared with clean graphene. The effect is stronger in graphene with more vacancies, confirming its vacancy-induced nature. The dependence of the coupling constant on the phonon temperature implies its link to the dynamics of disorder. Our study highlights the effect of disorder on electron-phonon interaction in graphene. In addition, the suppression of electronic cooling holds great promise for improving the performance of graphene-based bolometer and photo-detector devices.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

MOON: MapReduce On Opportunistic eNvironments

Abstract—MapReduce offers a flexible programming model for processing and generating large data sets on dedicated resources, where only a small fraction of such resources are every unavailable at any given time. In contrast, when MapReduce is run on volunteer computing systems, which opportunistically harness idle desktop computers via frameworks like Condor, it results in poor performance due to the volatility of the resources, in particular, the high rate of node unavailability. Specifically, the data and task replication scheme adopted by existing MapReduce implementations is woefully inadequate for resources with high unavailability. To address this, we propose MOON, short for MapReduce On Opportunistic eNvironments. MOON extends Hadoop, an open-source implementation of MapReduce, with adaptive task and data scheduling algorithms in order to offer reliable MapReduce services on a hybrid resource architecture, where volunteer computing systems are supplemented by a small set of dedicated nodes. The adaptive task and data scheduling algorithms in MOON distinguish between (1) different types of MapReduce data and (2) different types of node outages in order to strategically place tasks and data on both volatile and dedicated nodes. Our tests demonstrate that MOON can deliver a 3-fold performance improvement to Hadoop in volatile, volunteer computing environments

Absence of a transport signature of spin-orbit coupling in graphene with indium adatoms

Enhancement of the spin-orbit coupling in graphene may lead to various topological phenomena and also find applications in spintronics. Adatom absorption has been proposed as an effective way to achieve the goal. In particular, great hope has been held for indium in strengthening the spin-orbit coupling and realizing the quantum spin Hall effect. To search for evidence of the spin-orbit coupling in graphene absorbed with indium adatoms, we carry out extensive transport measurements, i.e., weak localization magnetoresistance, quantum Hall effect and non-local spin Hall effect. No signature of the spin-orbit coupling is found. Possible explanations are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, with supplementary material

Thermoelectric effect in high mobility single layer epitaxial graphene

The thermoelectric response of high mobility single layer epitaxial graphene on silicon carbide substrates as a function of temperature and magnetic field have been investigated. For the temperature dependence of the thermopower, a strong deviation from the Mott relation has been observed even when the carrier density is high, which reflects the importance of the screening effect. In the quantum Hall regime, the amplitude of the thermopower peaks is lower than a quantum value predicted by theories, despite the high mobility of the sample. A systematic reduction of the amplitude with decreasing temperature suggests that the suppression of the thermopower is intrinsic to Dirac electrons in graphene.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Development process of muzzle flows including a gun-launched missile

AbstractNumerical investigations on the launch process of a gun-launched missile from the muzzle of a cannon to the free-flight stage have been performed in this paper. The dynamic overlapped grids approach are applied to dealing with the problems of a moving gun-launched missile. The high-resolution upwind scheme (AUSMPW+) and the detailed reaction kinetics model are adopted to solve the chemical non-equilibrium Euler equations for dynamic grids. The development process and flow field structure of muzzle flows including a gun-launched missile are discussed in detail. This present numerical study confirms that complicated transient phenomena exist in the shortly launching stages when the gun-launched missile moves from the muzzle of a cannon to the free-flight stage. The propellant gas flows, the initial environmental ambient air flows and the moving missile mutually couple and interact. A complete structure of flow field is formed at the launching stages, including the blast wave, base shock, reflected shock, incident shock, shear layer, primary vortex ring and triple point