WPI Research Publication

FALL 2012

WPI Research is the research magazine of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It contains news and features about graduate research in the arts and sciences, business, and engineering, along with notes about new grants, books, and faculty achievements.

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Sensing Gas Concentrations from the Air With a four-year, $515,000 award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Michael Demetriou and Nikos Gatsonis (Aerospace Engineering) will investigate the use of unmanned sensing aerial vehicles (SAVs) to estimate the concentration of a gas emitted by an unknown source. The ability to make such predictions is important in efforts to mitigate the deliberate or accidental release of contaminants, and in rescue missions that involve the release of gases. The research will combine theoretical estima- tion, controls, and aerospace vehicle dynamics with computational fluid dynamics. Visual Tools for Assessing Risk in Streaming Data Matthew Ward and Elke Rundensteiner (Com- puter Science) and Huong Higgins (School of Business) received a $500,000 award from the NSF to develop visual analytical techniques that can help spot important patterns in high-volume streaming data, patterns that can help in risk assessment. The tools are expected to have a significant impact on a wide range of fields that rely on extracting meaning from the real-time flow of digital data, including the mili- tary, the financial sector, and medicine. In particular, they will play an important role in the assessment of financial risk and the detection of fraud. Can Online Tutoring Transform Homework? WPI is collaborating in a study led SRI International and funded by a $3.5 million award from the U.S. Department of Education to evalu- ate the effectiveness of using ASSISTments, an online tutoring and assessment system, for mathemat- ics homework. Neil Heffernan (Computer Science), who developed ASSISTments, is leading WPI's portion of the research. The research team, which includes faculty at the University of Maine, will study the use of ASSISTments by seventh-grade students and teachers in more than 50 schools in Maine. ASSISTments aims to transform homework by giving students instant feedback and tutoring adapted to their individual needs. Gift Helps WPI Keep Its Eye on User Experience Research The emerging research area of user experi- ence is playing an increasingly important role in the development of websites, mobile apps, and video games. Central to this work is eye-tracking, in which researchers monitor what users look at as they take in and process information, including words and images on a printed page, a web page, or a smartphone screen. The new User Experience and Decision Making laboratory at WPI, established with the help of a five-year, $263,000 gift from Dynamic Network Services Inc. (Dyn) and directed by Soussan Djamasbi, associate professor of MIS, will support a host of research that makes use of state-of-the-art eye-tracking technology and other physiological measures. NEW BOOKS by WPI Faculty Atomic Force Microscopy Based Nanorobotics Hui Xie, Cagdas D. Onal, Stéphane Régnier, and Metin Sitti Springer, 2012 Co-authored by Onal, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, this book presents the latest progress in the use of the atomic force microscope as a nanorobot to manipulate nanoscale entities such as particles, nanotubes, and nanowires. Engineering Design: Representation and Reasoning, 2nd Edition Clive L. Dym and David C. Brown Cambridge University Press, 2012 Arguing that symbolic representation and related problem-solving methods can help clarify and articulate concepts of design, this book, co-authored by Brown, professor of computer science, adopts the vocabulary and paradigms of artificial intelligence to enhance the presentation and explanation of design. [35]

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