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A Passion for Piano Unites Wells \u2727, Killey \u2799 During Concerto-Aria Performance
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Scaled Down Moon Habitat with Environmental Controls
No full textEnvironmentally controlled lunar habitats are an open problem the human race needs to solve as we prepare for the next generation of space exploration, with the pursuit of Mars exploration and colonization of other planets’ moons on the horizon. Our proposed lunar habitat will provide controlled levels of vacuum, temperature, and environmental gas. We want to develop recommendations for the size of the habitat, number of humans it can support, and the essential properties of materials necessary for its construction. We are going to build a scaled model that will mimic the environment of the moon and create a habitat that has livable qualities. The ultimate goal of our project is to make recommendations for the development of lunar habitats with limited resources, but with livable conditions and affordable costs
Computational Fluid Dynamics Studies relevant to Chimney Effects
No full textComputational Fluid Dynamics Studies relevant to Chimney Effects Ahmad Shahroz, Rees Amarteifio, Asad Ehsan Khan, Kevin Adair Hineline, † G. C. Spalding* Illinois Wesleyan University, Department of Physics, Bloomington, IL 61701 †El Fuego del Sol Ecological Solutions, Port-au-Prince, Ouest, Haiti In order to be appropriate to the Haitian community, stoves need to be technologically simple, operating without any electric fans or sensors, but the challenges we grapple with, in trying to improve their design, will involve working to develop competency in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), for example, to learn of how to improve the flow of oxygen into a larger version of the stove that might allow a school to reopen, or a local economy to restart. Our work begins with setting up mesh models for simpler sub-systems, and learning how to construct simulations where temperature differences will evolve, rather than being manually input. We have found an C++-based open-source CFD package, OpenFOAM, which allows for buoyant particle tracking and, critically, for heat tracking. Our progress will be reported
Making Nanotechnology More Accessible
No full textBiomedical research has demonstrated that “lab-on-a-chip” devices capable of single-molecule identification, utilizing significant enhancements of applied field achieved via a combination of surface plasmon resonance and nanoscale antennas. However, these “proof-of-principle” prototype devices have typically been fabricated in ways that do not hold promise for commercial manufacture. Therefore, this project aims to explore possible ways to make a large number of plasmonic antennas quickly and cheaply. The first method we explored is called “template stripping,” but a key expert in this area pointed us towards also considering “nanosphere lithography,” which uses a self-assembling colloidal crystal as a template for large-scale fabrication of some kinds of nano-antenna designs. We will report on progress in our efforts to enhance local capacity for fabrication of nanodevices
Intensifying Innovation: Creating of a Flexible Fourier Transform Spectrometer
No full textSpectroscopy is a technique to collect information about materials based on the spectra produced by illuminating the materials. Fourier transform spectroscopy is tracking the total intensity of light transmitted or absorbed by the material compared to a mirror position which is collected as an interferogram. Utilizing the Fourier Transform we can change these interferograms (an absorption or transmission vs mirror position graph) to intensity versus wavelength which can give us useful information about materials and their properties. Using this technique we hope to analyze the optical properties of several different materials including Vanadium Dioxide. To achieve this goal we are repurposing an inherited Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer and will change out the optics, outdated control circuitry, and mirror controls in order to recreate the system in a new, adaptable way that can be extended in the future. This first step is to create a spectrometer in the visible range as we have other spectrometers to which we can compare the spectra from this instrument, and several different challenges associated with the infrared range are not present