Research Briefs

Subhash Receives Tech Research Award

Ghatu Subhash and his dynamic hardness tester.

Professor Ghatu Subhash, who has gained an international reputation for research in mechanical engineering and materials science, is the recipient of Michigan Tech's 2005 Research Award.

This makes him one of a handful of Michigan Tech faculty to be honored with both the Research Award and the Distinguished Teaching Award, which he received in 1994.

Subhash's work focuses on the properties of materials at high rates of loading, and his Dynamic Indentation Hardness Tester is patented and has been licensed by the Army Research Lab at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.

"It measures a material's resistance to high-speed events, like you'd have in a crash, an impact, or in machining," Subhash said.

The hardness tester looks deceptively simple. There's a long bar with a power source at one end, a point at the other, and a weight in the middle. "It's more complicated than it seems," Subhash notes. "It's like firing a bullet, making it kiss the target, and come back."

The hardness tester has attracted interest from a number of corporations, and work is under way to establish ASTM International (formerly the American Society for Testing and Materials) standards for this testing method.

Subhash also developed the Instrumented Scratch Tester, to determine how resistant materials are to wear and tear. He is also exploring the mechanics of wear at the nanoscale level with a National Science Foundation grant, and he has been investigating another realm on the interface of engineering and science-amorphous metals, also known as metallic glasses. In addition to military applications, amorphous metals could find a role on the golf course. "A club made of metallic glass would have high elastic strains and a high coefficient of restitution," Subhash says. In other words, for a golfer using a club with a shaft made out of metallic glass, a three-hundred-yard drive could be no big deal.

Among his other honors, Subhash is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, one of the youngest members to receive that recognition.

Science Education Peace Corps Program Starting in Fall

Michigan Tech is poised to launch its fourth Peace Corps program this fall.

The new Master's International Program in Science Education is for students with bachelor's degrees in the physical sciences.

When they are done, they will have their master's degree and be close to completing secondary-teacher certification.

"The idea was to combine science education and national service," said Brad Baltensperger, chair of the Department of Education.

Demand for science educators is high among countries that host Peace Corps workers, said Sarah Green, chair of the Department of Chemistry. Plus, students in this program will interact with those in Michigan Tech's other Peace Corps Master's International programs in natural hazards, civil engineering, environmental engineering, and forestry.

"These programs attract a very enthusiastic, positive group of students," she said.

For more information, contact Baltensperger at 906-487-2460, brad@mtu.edu.

Tech Students Receive International Award for Sustainable Development

Students in Michigan Tech's Sustainable Futures Institute have received the prestigious International Mondialogo Award.

The award, sponsored by DaimlerChrysler and the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), honors research supporting the use of sustainable construction materials in the developing world.

The team focused on using natural materials, primarily volcanic ash and rice husk ash, to replace Portland cement in the making of concrete.

In addition to using cheap, readily available materials, the process sidesteps current cement production technology, a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

With their Mondialogo Award, the students plan to construct water storage tanks for use with rainwater harvesting systems in rural Philippine communities, where many families do not have access to safe drinking water.

School Receives $1.2 Million to Develop Software for Nonprofits

Business students brainstorm how to build the best software for Michigan's nonprofit organizations.

Michigan Tech students will be developing custom software for nonprofit organizations, thanks to a gift from the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation.

The foundation is underwriting the five-year, $2.0-million Non-Profit Application Development Initiative, which includes includes $1.2 million for Michigan Tech's School of Business and Economics. The funding will be used by the IT Oxygen Enterprise to develop computer applications for nonprofit groups.

Students in the Enterprise program work in teams and take on real-world projects, often on behalf of industry.

The remaining $800,000 of the Dow Foundation grant will be given to the Michigan Molecular Institute, in Midland, Michigan, which will serve as the liaison between the nonprofit community and Michigan Tech's IT Oxygen Enterprise.

"The students will be developing applications that nonprofits need to run their businesses," said Bob Maatta, a lecturer in the School and the IT Oxygen advisor. "Nonprofits often don't have the resources to pay for applications, so volunteers fill in. Unfortunately, when volunteers leave and something breaks, there's no one who can fix it."

"They'll be solving real problems for people," Maatta said. "Eventually, we hope that they will spin off businesses or use it to launch their careers."

The Non-Profit Application Development Initiative will tie in with the Michigan Tech SmartZone economic development effort, which aims to commercialize university technology.

For more information, on the initiative, contact Maatta at 906-487-2529. For more on the Enterprise Program, see www.enterprise.mtu.edu.

Better Living Through Remote Sensing: Hazard Mitigation Grant Targets Central America

Students in Michigan Tech's Aqua Terra Tech Enterprise take their expertise to Nicaragua, where they aim to help bring clean, reliable drinking water to the town of Boaco.

Central America has a bull's-eye on its forehead when it comes to natural disasters.

Gregg Bluth, an associate professor in the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences, counts them off. "Earthquakes, volcanos, hurricanes . . . There's a lot of need there, but not a lot of people who can help."

Enter a new, multifaceted Michigan Tech program made possible by a three-year, $2.3-million grant from the National Science Foundation. The funding supports an array of projects, including the Peace Corps Master's International Program in Natural Hazards. Taken together, they will use remote sensing to make life better for people in Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Ecuador.

The project combines research and education and is known officially as "Remote Sensing for Hazard Mitigation and Resource Protection in Pacific Latin America."

The primary natural hazards the researchers will address are the dozen or so active volcanos in the region.

Scientists routinely use remote sensing to monitor volcanic activity in hopes of predicting eruptions. The peasant farmers and villagers who live near active volcanoes, however, haven't been overly impressed by their efforts.

"There isn't a whole lot of confidence in these methods," Bluth notes. The researchers hope that by establishing a long-term presence, in part through the Peace Corps program, and by demonstrating the value of remote sensing, they'll gain more credibility from the people they hope to serve.

Eruptions, while catastrophic, are rare, so the researchers will also use remote-sensing technology to address a need faced day in and day out by local populations: clean drinking water. In addition to using satellite imaging, students on the ground will use seismic imaging to study the water table.

That portion of the project will be undertaken by Associate Professor John Gierke, and students in the Aqua Terra Tech Enterprise have begun their fieldwork in Boaco, Nicaragua.

Currently, most of Boaco's 34,000 residents are without running water for all but a couple hours a day, a few days per week, due to inadequate supplies and storage capacity.

In addition, the researchers will work with geoscience agencies from the four participating Latin American countries. Each nation has a different set of tools to address hazard mitigation, and the team hopes that by encouraging cooperation, people throughout the entire region will benefit.

For more information, visit www.geo.mtu.edu/rs4hazards/.

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