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COURSE NUMBERS FOR OSS
- AHSE4198 for AHS OSS
- AHSE4598 for E! OSS
- ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS
- MTH4198 for Math OSS
- SCI4198 for Science OSS
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Autonomous Systems OSS
Faculty: Brian Bingham
Offered: Fall/Spring
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS
Students in this OSS will explore autonomous robotic systems from a
research and theoretical standpoint. Through weekly readings, presentations
and discussions we will look at the state-of-the art in autonomy and how
these theories contribute to the utility of robotic platforms for remote sensing
in real-world environments.
The activities of this OSS will be mainly reading, discussion and writing summaries.
Each student will develop their own focused research question within this
general theme and write a two summary articles. Students will be expected to
select, read and present on papers at regualr intervals.
Part of this endeavor will be to develop a potential syllabus for an autonomous
systems course at Olin as part of the robotics coursework.
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Faculty: Mark Chang
Offered: Fall 2007 or Spring 2008
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS
I am willing to advise 3-6 students an OSS on almost anything in the
realm of these topics:
* Computing
* Digital design
* Embedded systems
* FPGAs and reconfigurable computing
* Mobile devices
* Software systems
* Vision systems
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Computational Modeling OSS
Faculty: Allen Downey
Offered: Spring 2008
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS
Students in this OSS will have the opportunity to explore discrete
computational models, including topics like small world graphs, scale
free networks, Zipf's Law, long-tailed distributions, self-similarity,
fractals, self-organized criticality, cellular automata, randomness,
Game of Life, complexity, agent-based modeling, distributed algorithms,
decentralized thinking, and emergence.
I will provide pointers to a range of readings, from popular non-fiction
to original research papers. Some students may be interested in helping
me prepare materials for the next offering of ENGR 3540: Computational
Modeling.
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Faculty: David/Sherra Kerns
Offered: Spring 2008
Project 1: International patents
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS (2 credits), AHSE4598 for E! OSS (2 credits)
Description:
OSS students will identify a country or set of countries upon mutual
agreement, and research their laws and practices regarding the
protection of intellectual property, particularly as applicable to
technology-based ideas protected by patents. Students will compare
and summarize their findings with analogous approaches in the USA,
and in their final report, prepare a short-form guide for use by
other students in protecting their ideas/inventions in foreign venues.
Project 2: Provisional Patent Protection
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS (2 credits), AHSE4598 for E! OSS (2 credits)
Description:
OSS students will research the provisional patent system in the US,
and possibly selected other countries, and construct a simple "roadmap"
appropriate for distribution to other students, that will easily
guide them through the process of protecting their inventive ideas,
using the provisional patent system.
Project 3: Entrepreneurship Around the World
Discipline: AHSE4598 for E! OSS
Description:
OSS students will study the social, legal, technical, financial aspects
of entrepreneurship in a country other than the USA (country or
countries selected by mutual agreement). Where significant differences
(compared to the US) are noted these will be highlighted and explained.
The final report will be structured as a guidebook to assist other
students in undertaking an entrepreneurial venture in another country.
Project 4: Microelectronics for Hazardous and Extreme Environments
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS
Description:
OSS students will study applications that challenge commercial-off-
the-shelf (COTS) electronics, such as high temperature, high radiation,
high pressure environments, and identify fabrication and design changes
that produce hardened electronics with functional specifications,
manufacturing requirements, and costs that match COTS as closely as
possible. The final report will develop practical recommendations for
fielding electronic circuits in selected harsh or extreme environments.
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Faculty: Matt Jadud (Matthew.Jadud@olin.edu)
Offered: Spring 2008
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS
Topic Areas:
I am comfortable supervising investigations regarding the behavior of
programmers and concurrency and embedded control. Generally, I am
comfortable with projects that explore things in the realm of programming
languages, their design, use, implementation, and execution.
Likely structure: Weekly group meetings. Transparent (online) group process.
Deliverables: A report of publishable quality submitted to an appropriate
publication venue, whether that is a trade magazine, conference, or journal.
Other deliverables as appropriate to the project.
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Faculty: Chris Lee
Offered: Fall 07-Spring 08
1) Finite Element Analysis-perform mechanical design and analysis using finite element methods. Students can develop their own code or make use of commercial software (ANSYS).
Example topics:
a) mathematical foundations: discretization, interpolation, convergence of solution, approximate functions, weighted residuals, variational methods, implicit vs. explicit formulation.
b) element types and formulation
c) mesh generation: auto-mesh generation from CAD models, topological mesh generation.
d) Stress, modal, and thermal/fluid analysis of mechanical and structural systems of your own interest.
2) Experimental methods for vibration or mechanical stress analysis
Learn and implement measurement and data acquisition techniques for vibration or mechanical stress using industry standard hardware and software.
3) Design, analysis, and construction of musical instruments (with Diana Dabby )
Use engineering design and analysis to understand how a musical instrument(s) generates sound. Then use this knowledge to construct your own instrument.
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OSS in Creative Writing
Faculty: Christina Shea (shea@verizon.net)
Offered: Spring 2008
Discipline: AHSE4198 for AHS OSS
This small group workshop converges biweekly to produce, refine, and share
work-in-progress. Students may write poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction
as they see fit. Custom-designed reading lists will influence and inspire.
Up to four students, with permission of the instructor.
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Faculty: Jose Oscar Mur-Miranda
Offered: Fall 2007
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS
In all projects, the emphasis may be shifted to accommodate students with
different backgrounds and interests.
1. AC-DC and DC-DC converters
The vast majority of electrical systems today are powered by DC sources of
a few volts. We are all familiar with power transformers that surround us.
Students can choose to study the design, performance and implementation of
modern power converters. Particularly interesting areas include low cost
circuits and ultra low power converters.
2. Wireless energy transfer
Wireless communication is commonplace, to the point that computer scientists
are studying pervasive computing environments. However, most systems still
need power at levels that require large and heavy energy storage and frequent
recharging or refueling. Companies like ABB, Splashpower and Powercast and
research groups are trying to transmit power over long distances. Students
can choose to study the theory and implementations of these and other
proposals.
3. MEMS Fabrication processes and materials
Students can choose to study theory, equipment, material properties and/or
empirical results of microfabrication. Subtopics may include soft lithography,
low-cost methods and wet etching.
4. MEMS Applications
Students can choose to study applications of microfabricated devices.
Application fields include powerMEMS, sensor and transducers, bioMEMS,
microfluidics and optics.
5. Energy Harvesting
Students can choose to study systems designed to generate electrical power
from ambient sources. Different areas include ultra-low-power applications,
where power is in the order of microwatts, consumer applications, where power
is between tens and hundreds of watts, and renewable power sources, where
power is in the order of kilowatts or more.
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Faculty: Joanne Pratt
Offered: Spring 2008
Discipline: SCI4198 for Science OSS
Project 1: Biology lab-based research on cancer project
Requirements: Must have prior biology lab research experience, including
experience with cell culture, transfection and immunoblotting
Number of students: 1-2
Description:
The inappropriate activation of proteins that promote cell growth and the
silencing of genes encoding proteins that induce cell death are both
factors that can lead to the development of cancer. RASSF1A is a protein
that normally induces an apoptotic (death) pathway in many cell types;
however in approximately 50% of all cancers, expression of the RASSF1A
gene is silenced by hypermethylation. To understand the role that this
important tumor suppressor protein plays in protecting the cell from
unregulated growth, it is critical to identify its molecular binding
partners that, together with RASSF1A, regulate the key pathways that
determine the ultimate fate of the cell. The current foci of this project
are to identify and characterize the proteins that associate with RASSF1A
and to analyze the effect of RASSF1A on transcriptional regulation.
Project 2: Resource research and syllabus generation for future Olin class--
"Emerging technologies in Cancer Research and Therapy"
Requirements: Must have taken ModBio, at least 1 advanced biology class,
at least 1 bioengineering class
Number of students 2-3
Description:
This independent study will directly contribute to curriculum development
at Olin College. Students will identify primary and secondary literature
sources for various aspects of cancer biology, research, diagnosis and
therapy. Students will develop resources to be used in the class and may
be involved in designing deliverables and assessments. Students will
determine which background and cutting edge topics should be included in
the class, and will become well-versed in the limitations of our current
knowledge of the mechanisms of cancer development, detection and resistance
to therapy.
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Fluid Dynamics through the works of G.I. Taylor
Faculty: Burt Tilley
Offered: Spring 2008
Discipline: MTH (2 credits), ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS (2 credits)
G.I. Taylor was considered to be the most important fluid mechanician to have
lived in the twentieth century. The major developments of fluid mechanics in
that century came about from seminal work by Taylor, who was a gifted theoretician
and experimentalist. This OSS will involve a group of three students who will
meet weekly to discuss a different paper by Taylor each week.
The concept for this OSS is not new: it is based on the fluid dynamics course
offered at Harvard by Profs. Howard Stone and Michael Brenner (see
http://www.seas.harvard.edu/brenner/taylor/physic_today/taylor.htm
for more details).
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Experimental Methods in Heat Transfer and Fluid Mechanics
Faculty: Jessica Townsend
Offered: Fall 2007
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS
We will read and review a number of experimental studies and will recreate some
experiments in the lab. Students will learn about typical experimental methods
in heat transfer and fluid mechanics in such areas as boiling and condensation,
laminar and turbulent flow, aerodynamics, flow visualization, heat conduction
and convection, and combustion. During the experimental phase, students will
learn about experimental planning and recordkeeping, lab safety, scaling and
similarity, measurement uncertainty, error analysis, and data acquisition.
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Topics in Wireless Communications
Faculty: Raymond Yim
Offered: Fall 2007 or Spring 2008
Discipline: ENGR4198 for Engineering OSS
Students in this OSS will study materials from current 3GPP wireless standards
and research paper on multinode wireless networks.
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Women in Science and Engineering: Literature Review and Meta-Analysis
Faculty: Yevgeniya V. Zastavker
Offered: Spring 2008
Discipline: AHSE4198 for AHS OSS
Description:
"Although women have made great strides in some disciplines, such as the
biological sciences, where they made up almost 60% of undergraduate degree
recipients in 2001, women are still underrepresented in engineering overall
(20.1%) and in subfields such as electrical engineering (13.8%) (NSF, 2004).
Furthermore, undergraduate women leave engineering, math and science majors
at a higher rate than men, up to 70% compared to 61% of men (Seymour &
Hewitt, 1997)" (Cummings et al., 2006).
This OSS activity will involve collection and meta-analysis of current
literature related to women in science and engineering. The purpose of this
activity is to identify over-arching themes, conceptual background, and
the underlying issues that cross-cut current understanding of the status
of women in science and engineering. Depending on student interests and the
choice of literature, a meta-ethnographic study may be performed (Noblit
& Hare, 1988).
References:
National Science Foundation. (2004). Women, minorities, and persons with
disabilities in science and engineering: 2002. NSF 04-317.
Pavelich, M. J., Olds, B. M., & Miller, R. L. (1995). Real-world problem
solving in freshman-sophomore engineering. New Directions for Teaching
and Learning, 61, 45-54.
Perrenet, J.C., Bouhuijs, P.A.J. & Smits, J.G.M.M. (2000). The suitability
of problem-based learning for engineering education: theory and practice.
Teaching in higher education, 5(3), 345-358.
Seymour, E. & Hewitt, N. (1997). Talking about leaving: Why undergraduates
leave the sciences. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
K. F. Cummings, C. D. Laughlin, A. E. Lee, J. Y. Tsai, Y. V. Zastavker, and
M. Ong, They Speak: One-on-One Interviews With Female Engineering Students
on Project-Based Learning. 2007 New England American Society for
Engineering Education (ASEE) Conference, Worcester, MA, March 2006.
Noblit, G. W. & Hare, R. D. (1988). Meta-Ethnography: Synthesizing Qualitative
Studies (Qualitative Research Methods), Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications,
Inc.
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