International Initiatives
Embracing Globalization and Internationalization
Globalization is an all encompassing term for a complex series of economic, social, technological, cultural and political changes seen as increasing interdependence, integration and interaction among people and companies in disparate locations around the world. The Division of Engineering is highly international, with an eclectic and diverse mix of individuals, of a wide range of nationalities, working together to solve challenging engineering problems. While some organizations fear globalization, the Division of Engineering embraces it; our faculty have genuine, long standing collaborations with researchers around the world, from Europe, to the Far East, to India, Africa, and Australia.
From Providence to Shanghai to Sydney to Paris, students have great opportunities to work in foreign laboratories and acquire international experiences during their graduate student career. In addition, our graduate students come from all around the world, as depicted in the flag on the left. A rich international ‘flavor’ with a well-balanced collection of students from many nationalities, the Division of Engineering is truly an exciting place to be and work.
As we continue to grow and provide further opportunities for students in the future, especially in terms of international experiences, we have a battery of global opportunities for students today. To name a few, Brown students can study aboard for one or two semesters (through the International Office usually during their Junior year), perform a summer internship in India, and participate in a new globalization graduate course, which involves a two week immersion trip to a foreign county once a year – in 2007 it will be the Netherlands. There are currently many options to expand your interests in internationalization and globalization, with many more to come as the University commitment to internationalization is extraordinary.
Tunable Surface Topological Films
Electrical Sciences graduate student Matt Sousa, now research scientist at 3M in St. Paul Minnesota, and Professors Lambert Freund (Solids) and Gregory Crawford (Electrical Science), in collaboration with researchers in the Netherlands, Kees Bastiaansen, associate professor of chemical engineering at the Technical University of Eindhoven, Dick Broer, vice president of research at Philips Research, developed a unique way to pattern ordered polymers on substrates to create a film with locally different thermal expansion properties. This is accomplished by patterning ordered and disordered polymers on a substrate with different thermal expansion coefficients a1 and a2. The films are thermally sensitive and present a myriad of unique surface topologies when thermally addressed; a finite element model was used to sort out the underpinning basic phenomena. The work recently appeared in Advanced Materials, “Isotropic ‘Islands’ in a Cholesteric ‘Sea’: Patterned Thermal Expansion Coefficients for Responsive Surface Topologies” [18, 1842 (2006)].
Patterned Alignment in Liquid Crystal Displays
Patterning surfaces to align liquid crystals has important implications in many industries; the most ubiquitous is flat panel displays. With the commercial arrival of liquid crystal televisions, there is a compelling need for sub-pixel patterning techniques that can be performed on large area displays in a simple and inexpensive way to improve the viewing angle. In collaboration with researchers in the Netherlands, Kees Bastiaansen, associate professor of chemical engineering at the Technical University of Eindhoven, Dick Broer, vice president of research at Philips Research in Eindhoven, Dick de Boer, senior scientist at Philips Research in Eindhoven, and Dr. Soney Varghese (received his PhD from the TU/e, now carrying on this work at Cochin University in India), Gregory Crawford and the team are trying to probe innovative ways to create large area manufacturing techniques for the flat panel display industry.
Holographically Patterned Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals
Graduate students in Electrical Science Matthew Sousa (now a senior researcher at 3M), James Eakin (currently working for Reveo, Inc.) and Suraj Gorkhali, as well as Physics graduate student Scott Woltman have collaborated with Professor Gregory Crawford (Electrical Science) and colleagues Professors Slobodan Zumer and Irena Drevensek-Olenik at the University of Ljubljana and the Josef Stefan Institute, of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The Brown University researchers have focused on experimental contributions to the endeavor, while the Slovene researchers have brought a strong theoretical background that has pushed the understanding of the materials and structures investigated.
Molecular dynamics of carbon nanotubes
Professor Huajian Gao (Solids), with collaborators in China, graduate student Jian Zou, Dr. Baohua Ji and Dr. Xiqiao Feng at Tsinghua University, discovered from molecular dynamics simulations that single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNT), with different radii, lengths, and chiralities, can coaxially self-assemble into multiwalled CNTs in water via a set of consecutive spontaneous insertion of smaller tubes into larger ones. This assembly process is strongly tube-size dependent and the driving force is primarily the inter-tube van der Waals attraction. After the assembly, a stable, highly condensed and ordered water monolayer or bilayer structure can form between the selected CNTs, leading to a class of carbon-water-carbon composite nanotubes. Such self-assembly suggests a possible “bottom-up” route for fabrication of novel devices in nano-electro-mechanical systems and molecular electronics. The work recently appeared in Nano Letters, “Self-Assembly of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes into Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes in Water: Molecular Dynamics Simulations” [6, 430 (2006)], and Small, “Molecular-Dynamic Studies of Carbon-Water-Carbon Composite Nanotubes” [2, 1348, (2006)].
Figure 1. Simulation snapshots of the self-assembly process of a (5,5) nanotube entering a (10,10) nanotube at t = 0, 5, 20, and 30 ps, respectively. Water molecules are not displayed for clarity.
Flexible Conductor Technology for Rollable and Inexpensive Displays
PhD candidate in Electrical Sciences, Frederick Biga along with Alexander Zaslavsky, associate professor of Engineering and Physics, Gregory Crawford, Dean of Engineering and Dapeng Wang, graduate student in Physics, have developed a flexible conductive electrode which can be deposited and patterned on compliant substrates for flexible electronic applications. The thin films deposited on plastics, show little change in resistance and also maintain conductivity even when stretched to twice their initial dimensions. The team led by Biga, who was a member of the pioneering engineering graduate entrepreneurship class (EN 292 -S27), are developing a low-cost flexible display device with this enabling technology to be used in underdeveloped countries. Funded by the NCIIA (www.NCIIA.org) two members of the team will be visiting Ghana in West Africa to collect pertinent information that will go into the design of their final product and analyze the market for such an application in Africa. The team will also collaborate with software engineers and other collaborators in Ghana to understand the role of local engineers for product support and sustainability.
Noninvasive hemoglobin determination
John McMurdy, a 3rd year graduate student in biomedical engineering, Elisabeth Kruger, a senior COE concentrator, Fred Biga, a 4th year graduate student in electrical engineering, and Samual Abiade, an African trade consultant at Abiade Associates, are working to market and commercialize an inexpensive handheld device for the rapid needle-free detection of anemia. The device functions using an ultra-compact and potentially solar powered spectrometer that detects hemoglobin in the microvasculature of the inner lining of the eyelid, a simple test to perform even for untrained medical specialists. Biga has spoken to numerous government officials, physicians, and businessmen in his home country of Ghana while Abiade and McMurdy intend to travel to Abiade¹s home country of Nigeria to demonstrate product operation, generate interest, and establish contacts with local health providers in the summer of ¹07. These efforts have recently been awarded $20K by the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance (NCIIA) while further support is being explored from the Red Cross, USAID, and the World Health Organization.
Thin film and coating materials for aerospace applications
Prof. Brian W. Sheldon’s group has worked with researchers at the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse since 1999. Toulouse is an important center of activity for the European aerospace industry. Interactions between Brown and Toulouse have focused on thin film and coating materials for aerospace applications. This work has been greatly facilitated by student exchanges between Brown and Toulouse.
