Engineering for the future

Innovation focused on improving technology for the future is commonplace at the Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, with projects over the past year including topics such as advancing medical technology and exploring creative solutions for global environmental issues.

“We apply science to make society better. We’re faced with issues that a lot of people recognize as troublesome, and we’re at a place where we can use technology to do something about (it),” said Mark Goorsky, the chair of the department of materials science and engineering.

With researchers focusing on many realms of technological advancement, Goorsky has focused his research on developing an efficient and affordable way to make solar energy widely available.

Goorsky, who is one of several professors researching programs on materials for sustainable energy, said solar cells used in space satellites are extremely efficient but also expensive.

He said satellite solar cell efficiency is considerably greater than what is currently available for the common consumer.

“With their cost, conventional electricity production remains much more economical,” he said.

Goorsky said he has been working on ways to significantly increase solar energy use and also make it cost-effective.

“We’ve been developing chemical rather than physical means to connect these solar panels,” he said.

As energy prices continue to rise, finding alternative energy sources such as solar cells is becoming more important, Goorsky said.

A complete plan for distributing solar energy could still be years away, but Goorsky said his team is working closely with a solar cell production company to translate research into a consumer product.

By practically applying research, the engineering department continues toward progress with creative ways to solve society’s looming problems, such as the energy crisis, he added.

In the realm of patient care, graduate student Steve Badelt is working with a team to create an accurate brain-machine interface system for the paralyzed.

“Present BMIs enable patients to operate computers using “˜thought control’ with 80 to 90 percent accuracy. Full rehabilitation of these patients must enable interaction in the physical world with 100 percent accuracy,” Badelt said.

Through experimentation with rats, Badelt said he created a brain-machine interface system with 100 percent accuracy by recording single neurons in the brain.

Badelt said he eventually sees brain-machine interface applied to controlling technology through thought commands ““ a reflection of how the engineering school is looking toward the future.

“Think about it. … No more typing or mouse clicking,” he said.

Other engineers, such as graduate student Debra Strick, have conducted research to uncover ways to make medical screening procedures more efficient.

Strick, who has worked in the interdepartmental neuroengineering program, created a project that miniaturizes the antennas in MRIs.

“I detailed an overall concept that took pixel sizes down to 20 microns from 1 millimeter,” Strick said.

She added that the higher-resolution scans would be particularly helpful in detecting early signs of breast cancer.

Strick said another useful application of her research is the possibility of discovering the underlying causes of epilepsy.

“We will be able to see some of the cellular changes associated with epilepsy,” Strick said. “We’re not sure what we’ll see, but it may help us diagnose and treat the disease.”

Though the engineering school has spearheaded the effort to research new technologies that would benefit patient care, most of the researchers said their work would not have been possible without the help of other departments.

Badelt said his brain-machine interface project involved the entire campus, adding that any sort of medical research is heavily multidisciplinary.

“My project couldn’t have been completed without collaborations from far outside the engineering field,” he said.

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