Department of <br />Applied Science

Doctoral Candidacy Exam Dates

Aaron Baker (Admin Account) — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 14:01:14 +0000

September 17, 19, 21, and 24.

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Applied Science.

Graduation Application

Aaron Baker (Admin Account) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:01:30 +0000

October 5th, 2012 – 5:00 pm.

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Applied Science.

Submission of Thesis/Dissertation to Graduate School

Aaron Baker (Admin Account) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:02:07 +0000

December 3rd, 2012

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Dr.Bhattacharyya and his Smart Materials and MEMS Group receive National Science Foundation-EPSCOR award for Smart Plasmonics research

adm_wordpress — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 16:05:54 +0000

Dr.Bhattacharyya and his Smart Materials and MEMS Group have received a 5 year, $ 465000 National Science Foundation (NSF)-EPSCOR award to pursue research in the area of shape memory thin films with applications to smart plasmonics. Plasmonics are devices that have free electrons which are excited by certain frequencies of light at the interface between a metal and a dielectric. The resonant frequencies are decided by the dielectric properties as well as geometrical properties of the metal structures (thin films). Coupling the plasmonics with solar cells has the potential to boost the efficiency of the solar cells. The geometrical properties of the thin films are sensitive to temperature and this sensitivity is markedly enhanced during phase transformations that are accompanied by dimensional changes of the thin films, as in shape memory alloys. This project is part of the Green Renewable Energy Efficient Nanoplasmonic (GREEN) Solar Cells Center effort led by Dr.Vasundhara Varadhan at University of Arkansas, Fayetteville and funded by NSF over a period of five years, 2010-2015.

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US Dept. of Interior awards grant to install seismic stations in Arkansas.

adm_wordpress — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 21:31:43 +0000

The US Department of Interior awarded Dr. Haydar Al-Shukri, Principal Investigator and Dr. Hanan Mahdi Co-Principal Investigator, $500,000 to adopt and operate six of the EarthScope/USArray Transportable Seismic Stations to be installed in Arkansas in 2010-2011. The purpose of this award is to enhance the capability of earthquake monitoring in the central United States in general, and the state of Arkansas, in particular. A six-component strong ground motion station will also be installed within the seismically active part of the New Madrid fault system. Other benefits of this project are to assist in hazard mitigation and early warning, provide public education and community outreach, provide state-of-the-art data to the scientific community to better understand seismicity and its risk in the region, and provide real-time information on seismic activity. The project started 2010 and end 2013.

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Applied Science.

Mobile Surveying for Atmospheric and Near-Surface Biosignature Gases

adm_wordpress — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:33:24 +0000

Dr. Gary Anderson and team have received a NASA EPSCoR grant to investigate using robots to find extraterrestrial water.

One of the greatest challenges in science today is to find living organisms that
originate outside of Earth. A prime place to begin this quest is the neighboring
planet of Mars, which once closely resembled early Earth. Because the surface of
Mars today is incompatible with any known life, any living organisms would long
ago needed to retreat underground. In this project, we look for signs of buried life
by scanning the near-surface atmosphere for signs of gases of biological origin.
Since these gases dissipate relatively rapidly in the Martian atmosphere, any excess concentrations must be due to a buried source. We monitor for biogenic gases such as methane by placing an open path spectrometer on a robot and examining the atmosphere between the robot and a distant retroreflector. If the target gases are found, the robot performs a search routine to localize the source of the emissions.

Once localized, other instruments can seek buried soil samples for further
investigations. The need to use low mass, low bulk and low power instruments
makes this a challenging project. We need students with skills in optical design,
instrumentation, electronics, control systems, robotics and instrumentation.

Some of this work is documented here.

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Dr. Al-Shukri receives grant to install seismic stations

adm_wordpress — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:28:44 +0000

Drs. Haydar Al-Shukri (PI) and Hanan Mahdi (Co-PI) recently received notice
of renewal on their grant from Deep Six, LLC, ($205,785) to continue
monitoring the induced seismicity that might be associated with the gas
exploration and production from the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas. The
project includes the installation of seven seismic stations in north central
Arkansas to continuously monitor the earthquake activity. Najah Abd, a PhD
candidate, is actively involved in the research.

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Dr. Karabacak’s Team Receives a NASA Award for Nanostructured Solar Cell Research

adm_wordpress — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:53:58 +0000

A team of Arkansas researchers led by Dr. Tansel Karabacak at UALR Department of Applied Science has been awarded a 3-year, $750,000 NASA Grant to develop photosensitive nanostructured materials for advanced solar cell and photodetector applications. The Arkansas NASA Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research Team, which includes researchers form UALR and ASU, was among 28 NASA recommended for funding during a national competition. The Arkansas team won for its proposal “Photoconductive and Photovoltaic Arrays of Inorganic Semiconductor Nanostructures for NASA-Related Light Detection, Sensor, and Energy Conversion Application.” This research team includes Dr. Tansel Karabacak from UALR as the Science Primary Investigator as well as Dr. Robert Engelken from ASU, and Dr. Hye-Won Seo from UALR as Co- Investigators.

The primary goal of this project is to develop a new approach to photoconductive/photovoltaic cell fabrication based upon generation of ordered arrays of inorganic photosensitive nanostructures with uniform feature shapes and sizes, and perform a systematic investigation of the material properties and geometrical effects, including nanostructure shape, size, and alignment, upon the nano-arrays’ optical absorption, photoconductive, and photovoltaic properties. The nanostructured arrays of inorganic semiconductors can lead to photodetectors and solar cells with superior sensitivities and energy conversion properties, and further open the possibility of expanding similar nanofabrication approaches to the development of other novel optical, optoelectronic, and sensor/transducer materials and devices.

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Dr. Cang Ye and his students won best paper award in ICMA 2010

adm_wordpress — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:08:42 +0000

A paper co-author by Chris Robinson, GuruPrasad M. Hegde, Cang Ye, Ashley Stroupe, and Edward Tunstel won the Toshio Fukuda Best Paper Award in Mechatronics in 2010 IEEE International Conference on Mechatronics and Automation. The paper was entitled “Computer Vision Based Wheel Sinkage Detection for Robotic Lunar Exploration Task.”

More about the paper

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Dr. Cang Ye received research grant from the National Science Foundation.

adm_wordpress — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 18:06:08 +0000

The National Science Foundation awarded $320,389 research grant to Dr. Cang Ye to develop computer vision methods that may enable portable blind navigational devices to guide people with visual impairment. The devices include a “smart” cane that was featured on science360 as “Today’s Exclusive.”

About the grant

More news about the “smart” cane

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