Committee Members: Raymond J. Gorte and John M. Vohs, Co-Advisors; Aleksandra Vojvodic and Donald Berry.
Many modern humanoid robots are designed to operate in human environments, like homes and hospitals. Such robots could help humans accomplish tasks and lower their physical and/or mental workload. However, robot users in homes and hospitals typically are not familiar with robotics or programming, therefore it is difficult for them to adapt robots to their […]
The ultimate promise of robotics is to design devices that can physically interact with the world. To date, robots have been primarily deployed in highly structured and predictable environments. However, we envision the next generation of robots (ranging from self-driving and -flying vehicles to robot assistants) to operate in unpredictable and generally unknown environments alongside […]
Spin-lattice dynamics (SLD), an increasingly popular simulation method which simultaneously computes both atomic displacements and spins, offer new possibilities for modeling the temporal evolution of systems where the coupling between these atomic features are relevant such as spin caloritronics, heat assisted magnetic recording, magnetocaloric responses and magnetic nanoparticle hyperthermia. To accurately model and understand these […]
Nanoparticle assemblies (NPAs) have attracted tremendous interests of various research communities. The particle-size-effect on mechanical properties of NPAs is systematically studied. With decreasing the particle size d from 300 nm to 10 nm, the SiO2 NPAs become drastically harder (∼39×), stiffer (∼15×), and tougher (>3.5×). The results are consistent with the data scattered in the […]
The standard of care for augmenting surgical bone repair or regeneration remains bone graft harvested from the patient despite a lack of sufficient quantity or quality of graft in many clinical cases. Bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) therapeutics have been successfully developed and commercially marketed as substitutes for bone graft. Although the clinical success of BMP, […]
Thesis Committee: Karen Winey, Advisor; Daeyeon Lee, Robert Riggleman and Chinedum Osuji
Committee: Karen Winey, Advisor; Daeyeon Lee, Robert Riggleman and Chinedum Osuji
The rheology of polar ice evolves in response to weather and climate changes, by modifying its microstructure. While the experimental evidence for the dependence of rheological properties on the microstructure is well documented, there are only a few modeling efforts to capture the rheological behavior of polar ice, mostly by fitting continuum models to the […]
Committee: Daeyeon Lee and Robert A. Riggleman, Co-advisors; Ravi Radhakrishnan and Zahra Fakhraai
Small-scale robotic systems have emerged as promising tools to perform a wide-range of tasks in microbiology and medicine such as targeted delivery, cell manipulation, environmental monitoring, and microassembly. In order to perform these tasks, the robot must execute precise locomotion, take measurements from its environment, and use those measurements to make decisions. However, unlike their […]