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Rensselaer’s online research magazine |
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Unprecedented computing power is making it possible to model entire systems, taking into account interactions at every scale. |
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Sound Waves To Probe for Land Mines |
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| Most current technologies to detect land mines rely on metal detecting principles that do not work for land mines enclosed in plastic, wood, or even ceramic mine containers. Ning Xiang, associate professor of architecture, is developing an acoustic land mine detector that sends sound waves into the ground and measures acoustic reflections with remote sensors. If a land mine is present, a distinctive signal is detected. |
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T-Rays: Identifying Hidden Hazard |
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| Terahertz (THz) radiation, or T-rays, provides spectroscopic information not available through more standard sensing and imaging techniques. THz pioneer Xi-Cheng Zhang, the J. Erik Jonsson ’22 Distinguished Professor, leads a team that is doing fundamental and applied research on THz security systems. Zhang’s team is developing technology for sensing and imaging explosives and weapons. They have demonstrated that a handheld THz spectrometer can provide real-time spectroscopic measurements of explosives. |
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Work continues on a land-mine detection system. Another system under development can prescreen sealed envelopes and cardboard or plastic containers to identify chemical and biological hazards. A T-ray imaging system can look through walls and doors to see people and weapons within a building. A recent breakthrough is the first use of ambient air as a THz wave emitter and a THz wave sensor. |
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Hurricane Katrina Models |
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| Tarek Abdoun, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, and Thomas Zimmie, acting department head and professor of civil and environmental engineering, were selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build and test small-scale centrifuge models of sections of the New Orleans flood-protection system. At Rensselaer’s Geotechnical Centrifuge Research Center, they simulated conditions during Hurricane Katrina. |
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Nanoscale Heat Transfer |
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| Nanoscale materials have far more surface area within a given volume than conventional materials. Researchers have learned that heat transfer follows different rules at the nanoscale, with liquids actually conducting heat better than solids. Pawel Keblinski, associate professor of materials science and engineering, and Shekhar Garde, the Elaine S. and Jack S. Parker Chair in Engineering, performed molecular simulations at a variety of interfaces. |
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Up to the Petascale |
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| Rensselaer participates in the Department of Energy’s SciDAC (Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing) program, which is attempting to take modeling and simulation to the petascale (both petaflops, a million-billion calculations per second, and petabytes, a million-billion bytes of data). Rensselaer partners with Sandia, Brookhaven, and Lawrence Livermore National Labs on a five-year $2.5 million SciDac project. Tools are being developed for the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. |
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Understanding Nanocomposites |
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| The Scientific Computation Research Center’s Multiscale Systems Engineering for Nanocomposites program brings together a large interdisciplinary team that receives support from NSF, New York state, and a number of industrial sponsors. While nanocomposites often have superior properties, the goal is to design them with desired properties for a particular use. This begins by first modeling interactions between nanoparticle fillers and polymer chains using quantum mechanics. Next, models are needed of chain structure and dynamics at the molecular level. Relevant data must be transferred to the continuum level, where the material behavior of the complete product is modeled. |
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Threats to Computer Security |
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| Boleslaw Szymanski, professor of computer science, and his collaborators are working on issues of computer and network security. They combine techniques such as recursive data mining, hidden Markov models, and bioinformatics algorithms to recognize insider attacks. Such systems are capable of detecting when an organization member seeks to obtain unauthorized information by obtaining an authorized user’s password or sneaking onto an unattended computer. Szymanski also builds network security systems, using a multi-stage approach that relies on computationally inexpensive methods to filter out suspicious from normal behavior. More powerful (and expensive) methods then check on suspicious activities. Machine learning techniques increase the quality of the system. |
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Mark Goldberg, professor of computer science, leads a group that is creating methods for detecting hidden groups such as terrorist cells operating within a communications network like the Internet. Goldberg, Malik Magdon-Ismail, associate professor of computer science, and William A. Wallace, professor of decision sciences and engineering systems, are funded by NSF and an intelligence community program for a system that takes into account only time and the identities of senders and recipients. With additional funding the group is looking for hidden groups in the blogosphere and is studying the ways infectious ideas spread in the international community. |
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Learning How Humans Think |
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| Under a three-year, $1.2 million DARPA grant, Rensselaer researchers are investigating key issues associated with learning and reasoning with the goal of building an intelligent machine that can read with understanding. Selmer Bringsjord, professor and chair of cognitive science and a principal investigator on the project, says that humans learn best by reading but not even the most advanced computer systems can read. In earlier work, Bringsjord’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Reasoning Laboratory developed PERI, the first robot to pass part of an IQ test, and Brutus, a system that could write original, if limited, short stories. |
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Wayne Gray, professor of cognitive science and director of Rensselaer’s Cog-Works Lab, is funded by the Air Force to study the large effects that small changes in cognition and perception can have on behavior, a concept he calls “Milliseconds Matter.” Gray regularly applies his expertise in cognitive modeling to such practical problems as interpreting on-screen information to locate enemy submarines. |
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Healthcare Professionals Improve Their Skills |
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| Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management & Technology has launched Program Apollo, an innovative, executive education program for healthcare professionals. In the three-day program, participants and faculty members use Apollo to take part in simulated scenarios set in a virtual hospital. They make decisions on such management issues as choosing the types of training programs to offer to doctors and nurses or purchasing new medical technology. |
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