Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice
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Skyline Sketches: Luckily, I Remembered My Gloves
Full text linkIn 1949, a Dartmouth student described a spontaneous climb of Mount Washington in a letter home to his parents
Pseudo-Soft-Switching Switched-Capacitor Drive Circuits for Small-Scale Dielectric Actuators
Full text linkApplications including micro-robotics and haptics have motivated extensive exploration of dielectric actuators due to their high bandwidth and high efficiency at cm and mm scales. To maximize their benefits, dielectric actuators, including piezoelectric and electrostatic actuators, typically require high driving voltages, ranging from 100V to several kV. Generating such high driving voltages presents a challenge for drive circuits, particularly when powered by a small battery. Dielectric actuators are predominantly capacitive in most circumstances, necessitating the drive circuits to deliver and recover reactive energy for efficient operation. In some applications, such as micro-robotics, the drive circuits may need to have a weight significantly less than 1g and a volume less than 1cm3.
This dissertation explores topologies and integration strategies for drive circuits for small-scale, high-voltage dielectric actuators. Specifically, we outline a pseudo-soft switching series-parallel switched-capacitor (SC) converter that reduces hard-switching loss by stepping the load voltage with small increments and recovers the energy stored in the load to high-energy-density flying capacitors. The operation and performance benefits of the circuit are validated with several integrated circuit prototypes. A first prototype uses on-chip photovoltaic cells as a power source and achieves output voltage over 100V with up to 14x reduction in power compared to a conventional hard switching driver. A second prototype uses a decentralized daisy-chain control scheme and chip-chip stacking to extend drive voltages to the kilovolt range, beyond the buried oxide limit of conventional high-voltage SOI CMOS processes. A final prototype extends the pseudo-soft switching concept to gate drivers for silicon and GaN power semiconductor devices. This is used to show that the pseudo-soft switching concept can be extended to MHz switching regimes with sub-ns waveform tuning, while reducing gate drive power by 5x to 7x compared to conventional gate drivers
Qualitative Interview Coding
No full textThis lesson introduces undergraduate students to rigorous thematic analysis as a tool for gaining insights from qualitative interviews. Aimed at students with some familiarity in Design Thinking, it emphasizes the role of interviewing in understanding user experiences and informing human-centered research. This might be the first lesson in a multi-lesson sequence, allowing the next lesson to go deeper into insights of what design researchers gather from their thematic coding. Through a mix of lecture, individual coding, and small-group coding, students learn to distinguish between inductive and deductive coding and apply these methods to sample interviews. The lesson fosters active learning and collaboration, encouraging students to think critically about how coding decisions shape their findings. Rather than focusing on correctness, assessment centers on comprehension, reasoning, and communication of process. Adaptable to different levels and disciplines, this lesson can be taught as part of a design thinking or qualitative research course, or as a standalone introduction to interview analysis
When Dollar General Comes to Town
No full textSince 2008, Dollar General has grown from 8,222 to 18,130 locations, becoming a staple of rural communities across America. These discount stores have had, and continue to have, a widespread impact on these communities. This lesson aims to inform students of these impacts, while also addressing how towns are responding to the entrance of Dollar Generals. The lesson will equip students to consider the different perspectives involved in this trend. Key concepts that will be discussed include food deserts, rural transportation difficulties, labor costs, and pricing competition
Who Owns Our Knowledge? Scholar-Led Infrastructures and the Future of Publishing
No full textWhat would happen if Google Scholar were to vanish tomorrow? For many researchers, it has become the default gateway to academic literature, yet its dominance also exposes vulnerabilities in how knowledge is discovered and accessed. This presentation will discuss how the proliferation of open access journals, led by scholars and published out of universities from around the world, is challenging publishing models, reshaping access to knowledge, and redefining the global landscape of scholarly communication. It concludes with a call to strengthen and sustain scholar-led publishing infrastructures—so that access to knowledge is secured by the academic community itself, not left at the mercy of corporate platforms.
Webinar from Juan Pablo Alperin (Simon Fraser University), hosted by Indiana University Librarie
Grounded in Motion: Finding Calm Through Daily Stretching
No full textThis lesson targets undergraduate students, reframing stretching as an essential, evidence-based habit for long-term wellness and stress management. The lesson\u27s primary goal is to empower students to confidently design and consistently apply a personalized routine that protects their mobility and independence. Students will master the core science, understanding that dynamic stretching may augment performance pre-exercise, while shorter static stretches can be performed without compromising muscle performance, and post-exercise stretching can reduce muscle pain perception. This lesson emphasizes proper execution, requiring students to warm up first with 5 to 10 minutes of light activity with focus on technique. This practical knowledge supports the design of routines for maximal chronic flexibility gains
Being Your Authentic Self
No full textThis lesson reviews what it means to be authentically you while also reminding students that there is no one right answer to the question what does it mean to be your authentic self. This lesson will also cover norms within greek culture and life on college campuses. Students will work through scenarios, reflect, comment on a video, and complete an exit ticket in order to demonstrate an understanding of how to navigate Greek spaces while being their authentic selves. They will also apply what they’ve learned during the lesson in real life to make other people feel comfortable within Greek spaces simultaneously combating the stereotypical norms of these spaces
STOLmate 2.0: Independent Takeoff and Landing Measurements for Private Pilots
No full textTakeoff and landing are the most challenging phases of flight. Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) performance metrics quantify how efficiently an aircraft minimizes takeoff and landing distance. These measurements ensure safety and have even become the basis of STOLcompetitions, where pilots compete to minimize their takeoff and landing distance. While pilots use mathematical models to predict STOL distances, there are no available means for pilots to measure their true STOL performance instantaneously, affordably, and easily. STOLmate 1.0 laid the foundation for instantaneous, accessible STOL performance reporting; however, the current device requires labor-intensive manufacturing, has reliability issues in certain weather and runway conditions, and has a range of inaccuracy. Additionally, the corresponding software has limited UI design elements, few customization functions, and no data persistence. STOLmate 2.0 expands upon STOLmate 1.0, providing a more enjoyable user interface, more reliable performance in different environmental conditions, easier manufacturing, and a 33% reduction in manufacturing cost. The new hardware is built around a PCB design with the addition of accelerometer data to expand the information available to STOLmate users and enable our sponsor to explore further techniques to enhance performance accuracy. On the software end, we provided a ground-up redesign of the iOS app, flight history data, and customizable airplane and airfield settings. STOLmate is the first commercially-available device to enable pilots to train for STOL competitions by determining their takeoff and landing performance independently, and STOLmate 2.0 will enhance the features of the pre-existing model