9 Purdue researchers win 2011 NSF early career awards
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Nine Purdue University faculty members have won the National Science Foundation's most prestigious honor for outstanding young researchers in 2011.
The NSF issues about 400 Faculty Early Career Development awards annually. Purdue's 2011 recipients were Alina Alexeenko, Monica Cardella, Jong Hyun Choi, Charles Killian, Ramana Kompella, Yuan Qi, Burkhard Schulz, Olga Vitek and Yoon Yeo.
Details about the Purdue awardees and their research follow:
Nanotech Forces
Alexeenko, an assistant professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, will use her grant to learn how to apply the principles of "Knudsen forces," or forces exerted by the movement of gas molecules, to the field of nanotechnology. Knowledge about the forces is needed to design high-precision thermal sensors, miniature motors and tiny machines called microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, and to improve the accuracy of a widely used research tool called an atomic force microscope. Textbooks contain little information about the physics of Knudsen forces, although they can profoundly influence the motion of MEMS components in the presence of heating or cooling. The project includes curriculum development and work to create simulation tools and the world's largest and smallest Crookes radiometers, ornamental devices consisting of a sealed glass chamber housing metallic vanes that spin when exposed to sunlight. Knudsen forces cause the vanes to spin inside the devices, which are also called light mills.
Design Learning
Cardella, an assistant professor in the School of Engineering Education, will use her grant to study how engineering students' learning experiences in mathematics courses impact how they learn engineering design. Since design is closely tied to innovation, the impact on preparation of the technical workforce in the United States is potentially important. Cardella will use a "verbal protocol" method, which enables researchers to understand the thought process by having students verbalize how they are solving a problem. Understanding how students differ according to demographics could help increase the number of young people who choose to study engineering. About 90 students will be included in the study. The project aims to improve undergraduate engineering education, while at the same time focusing attention on mathematics education at the K-12 level. She plans to widely disseminate the project's results, including outreach to K-12 educators through workshops. The project overlaps with NSF's focus on preparing an engineering workforce with new capabilities and expertise and developing innovative learning systems.
DNA-Based Nanomanufacturing
Choi, an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering, will use his grant to develop a new manufacturing technology that uses DNA to "self-assemble" tiny structures for solar cells. Because DNA is able to recognize and bind to different types of molecules, such a technology might be used to manufacture a wide range of devices for various applications, including photovoltaic and photoelectrochemical cells, which generate electricity from sunlight. The manufacturing technology could make possible the creation of nanostructures in a new type of solar cell that self-repairs like natural photosynthetic systems, increasing service lifetime and reducing cost. The research aims to uncover underlying principles in physics and chemistry involved in the technology. Theoretical modeling will be developed to guide experimental realization, generating optimal conditions for large-scale production. The manufactured nanostructures also will serve as a platform to study how electrons and energy flow in nanostructures. The project activities will provide opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students, strive to increase participation of women and underrepresented minority students, and impact K-12 students through outreach programs.
Analyzing Distributed Systems
Killian, an assistant professor of computer science, will use his grant to create an automated system for the evaluation of distributed systems software to reduce the amount of time developers must spend designing, updating and debugging these systems. Distributed systems run a program on multiple computers at once, which makes it more difficult to pinpoint the source of a problem or failure in an application. Current testing involves extensive manual effort and individual review of system logs. Killian will use data mining and statistical methods to analyze multiple executions and multiple sets of both hardware and software system logs to extract information about performance, identify bugs and evaluate long-term effects such as "feature creep," in which software performance decreases and slows over time as new features are added. The tools he develops will go beyond identifying bugs or correctness errors to allow a better understanding of system behavior.
Improving Data Center Performance
Kompella, an assistant professor of computer science, will investigate tools and techniques to help manage data center performance. Cloud computing, Google searches and many modern computer applications rely on large data centers composed of many computers working in parallel connected via a network. Users want a quick response, and the speed of these data centers in responding to a request is becoming an important issue. Currently, a response delay has to be investigated by the data center staff by checking a series of routers along the job path to find the problem or determine if a certain application is taking too much time. Kompella is developing algorithms that capture important statistical information about performance within each router that allows for faster and easier diagnosis of delay causes. The availability of such information will also enhance center management through improved network traffic flow and intelligent assignment of resources for each requested job.
Extracting Information and Inferring Relationships
Qi, an assistant professor of computer science, will use his grant to develop new computational tools to search for and extract information and relationships from complex data sets pulled from multiple sources. Many of the most useful datasets have multiple interrelated aspects or dimensions to explore, just as emails can be evaluated by subject, sender, content, date or different combinations of these categories. As the complexity increases and multiple data sources are pulled together, extracting useful knowledge and identifying meaningful relationships within the data becomes more challenging. Qi will use computer science and statistics to build models and algorithms that quickly process and analyze massive amounts of data, incorporate prior knowledge from existing sources, and identify the most critical and useful relationships. He is focusing on data that will be used to study molecular interaction networks, brain connectivity maps and people's social networks. As part of this work, he will collaborate with domain experts to model online user behavior, neurologists to elucidate brain functions and pharmaceutical researchers to identify key biomarkers for drug discovery.
Maize Architecture
Schulz, an assistant professor of plant biochemical and molecular genetics in the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, will develop a research and education program that analyzes plant steroid activity in maize. Manipulation of plant architecture through traits such as height, branching and sex determination is the most effective way to increase crop yields. Brassinosteroids, a class of plant hormones that controls growth, play an important role in cell division and elongation, as well as developmental processes such as fruit formation, leaf development, seed set and germination. Schulz will analyze the role of brassinosteroids on growth and sex determination in maize. Maize plants develop separate male and female flowers. Schulz's research group showed that this process is regulated by steroid hormones in maize. Understanding the biochemical pathways that control plant growth and differentiation will allow more effective manipulation of desired traits in important crops to improve food, feed and biofuel production.
Statistical Tools to Aid Proteomics, Metabolomics and Ionomics
Vitek, an associate professor of statistics and computer science, will use her grant to develop statistical and computational tools for the fields of proteomics, metabolomics and ionomics, which examine the interactions of groups of biological molecules and identify potential biomarkers for disease. Commonly used technology in these fields, such as nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectrometry, create large and complex datasets that are difficult to process and interpret. Vitek will develop statistical methodology and software that more accurately identifies and quantifies proteins, metabolites and ions from these high-throughput experiments. The approach will use statistical methods and information available from existing databases to increase the sensitivity, accuracy and scope of interpretation of this data and will assist in the optimal design of targeted follow-up experiments. Vitek will use screens of the yeast S. cerevisiae as a demonstration model to benchmark the methods. Vitek also will make case studies available to the community, offer interdisciplinary tutorials and courses, and mentor students across departments to help bridge the communication gap among biologists, chemists and statisticians.
Cystic Fibrosis Drug Delivery
Yeo, an assistant professor of industrial and physical pharmacy, will use her grant to create new drug-delivery systems to help in the treatment of cystic fibrosis, the chronic lung disease caused by genetic defects. Direct delivery of drugs is challenging because of a thick mucous barrier that develops in the lungs as part of the disease. Yeo plans to create a layer of sugar-based biomaterial that can encapsulate nanoparticles and create a channel through the mucous as it dissolves. The sugars attract water and thin the mucous, allowing the therapeutic nanoparticle to slip through and reach the targeted lung cells. She is working to develop formulations that create fluffy particles that can be easily inhaled into the lungs. Yeo also is using the grant to create an outreach program to interest high school students in science. Undergraduates in the Engineering Projects in Community Service, or EPICS, program will create materials and activities for science teachers describing microparticles, their common uses and the chemistry involved.
Writers: Elizabeth K. Gardner, 765-494-2081, ekgardner@purdue.edu
Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
Brian Wallheimer, 765-496-2050, bwallhei@purdue.edu