Purdue engineering students to compete in regional, national competitions

March 26, 2013  


Bearing Analytics team of Purdue students

The Bearing Analytics team of Purdue students, from left, Lokesh Gupta, Andrew Kovacs, Chris Ochynski and Anurag Garg will compete in the 2013 Midwest Clean Energy Challenge in Chicago and the Rice Business Plan Competition in Houston in April. The team's business plan promotes patent-pending technology that indicates impending bearing failure better than commercial sensors currently on the market. (Bearing Analytics photo)
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers in Purdue University's College of Engineering could improve the operations of energy-generating devices like wind turbines and high-volume manufacturers with their patent-pending sensor that monitors the performance of bearings.

Anurag Garg, a doctoral candidate in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, said accurate measurements of temperature and vibration changes can alert workers to premature bearing failure.

"Taking early corrective action could improve safety conditions for workers, reduce operational downtime and increase bearing life," he said. "These lead to more efficient use of resources, improved operational efficiency and a cost savings of millions of dollars a year for industry."

Conventional bearing sensors that monitor real-time bearing performance are mounted outside the bearing, which limits the ability to determine internal conditions.

"The Purdue-developed technology allows a sensor to be placed directly on the bearing cage, which is the source of temperature and vibration fluctuations," Garg said. "As a result, it provides a more reliable indicator of impending bearing failure and has a better response time than any commercial sensor available on the market."

Garg and three other Purdue students formed a group called Bearing Analytics to present the technology in competitions. Other team members are Lokesh Gupta, Andrew Kovacs and Christopher Ochynski. Gupta and Kovacs are doctoral candidates in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. They and Garg are doing doctoral work in the Adaptive Radio Electronics and Sensors group. Ochynski is a senior in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a first-year student in the MBA program at Krannert School of Management.

Bearing Analytics won the Indiana Clean Energy Challenge in February 2013 and will compete in the 2013 Midwest Clean Energy Challenge on April 4 in Chicago. The team also will compete in the national Rice Business Plan Competition on April 11-13 in Houston.

"We are excited to prepare for the Midwest Clean Energy Challenge and the Rice Business Plan Competition, two of the most prestigious events that highlight innovations developed at universities," Garg said. "We also acknowledge our mentors who guided the development of the technology: Dimitrios Peroulis of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and School of Mechanical Engineering, and Farshid Sadeghi and Douglas Adams of the School of Mechanical Engineering."

About Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization

The Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization operates one of the most comprehensive technology-transfer programs among leading research universities in the United States. Services provided by this office support the economic development initiatives of Purdue University and benefit the university's academic activities.

Purdue Research Foundation contact: Steve Martin, 765-588-3342, sgmartin@prf.org

Source: Anurag Garg, garg@purdue.edu

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