Manufacturing Engineering

Guo PhD Prospectus Defense 6/4/08

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Boston University College of Engineering
Department of Manufacturing Engineering

Ph.D. Prospectus Examination

Dong Guo

Title: Localization and Tracking in Sensor Networks

Wednesday, June 4, 2008
15 Saint Mary’s Street, Room 116
11:00AM-1:00PM

Committee:
Professor Ioannis Paschalidis (MFG)
Professor Christos Cassandras (MFG)
Professor Thomas Little (ECE)
Professor Prakash Ishwar (ECE)

Gingras MS Presentation, 5/2/08

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Boston University College of Engineering
Department of Manufacturing Engineering

M.S. Final Oral Presentation

Michael Andrew Gingras, M.S. Candidate

Friday, May 2, 2008
8 Saint Mary’s Street, Room 717
3:00-4:30PM

Committee:
Professor Tom Bifano, Advisor
Professor Dan Cole
Professor Xin Zhang

Title: Development Of An Evaporated, Patterned, Pyrex® Thin Film For Anodic Bonding Of Wafer Scale Optical MEMS

Abstract: This thesis reports on the development of an electron beam evaporated, patterned, anodically-bondable Pyrex® 7740 thin film of 4-5µm in thickness for use in bulk micromachining of large aperture deformable mirrors using silicon on insulator (SOI) device layers. Corning Pyrex® 7740 stock glass is used as the evaporant source and 4-inch p-type single crystal silicon wafers are used as bonding substrates. Modifications to the electron beam evaporator were needed to mitigate debris ejected from the evaporant during processing. Film thickness uniformity was evaluated and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis was used to qualify metal contaminants in the film. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) was used to quantify the sodium concentration of films of various deposition rates as a function of depth from surface to substrate interface. SIMS data showed significantly elevated sodium quantities within the first 200nm of deposition for all rates. Based on SIMS data, the sodium “spike” was transferred to the bonding interface in order to improve anodic bonding consistency. Film roughness of the resulting process was quantified and anodic bonds were tested for strength and uniformity over the 4-inch wafer. Due to the low-temperature capability of the process, a photoresist-based, lift-off patterning process was chosen to create the desired features in the film and patterned bonding was demonstrated. Pyrex® 7740 films in the deposited and patterned states were evaluated for film stress and resulting wafer bow. Overall manufacturability of the process is discussed.

DeLucas MS Presentation, 4/18/2008

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Boston University College of Engineering
Department of Manufacturing Engineering

Rachel DeLucas, M.S. Candidate
M.S. Thesis Presentation
Friday, April 18, 2008
15 Saint Mary’s Street, Room 116
12:30-2:30PM

Committee:
Professor Uday Pal, Advisor
Professor Soumendra N. Basu
Professor Adam C. Powell

Title: Scale-Up And Mathematical Modeling Of The Solid Oxide Membrane Process For The Direct Reduction Of Magnesium From Magnesium Oxide

Abstract: The Solid Oxide Membrane (SOM) process is an energy efficient process for the production of metals directly from their oxides. The Mg-SOM process employs an yttria-stablized zirconia membrane filled with liquid tin as an anode to deoxidize a molten ionic flux containing dissolved magnesium oxide. The deoxidation is achieved by the membrane’s excellent ionic conductivity at high temperatures (1150°C in this case). Dissociated oxygen ions are transported across the SOM to be oxidized at the tin anode. Magnesium vapor evolves at the stainless steel cathode and is carried by inert gas (argon) to a cooler chamber where it condenses into a high purity solid metal.

Kulinski MS Presentation, 4/11/08

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Boston University College of Engineering
Department of Manufacturing Engineering

MS Thesis Presentation

Maria Dominika Kulinski, M.S. Candidate

Friday, April 11, 2008
15 Saint Mary’s Street, Room 105
2:00PM-4:00PM

Committee:
Prof. Catherine Klapperich, MFG/BME (Advisor)
Prof. Andre Sharon, MFG
Prof. Xin Zhang, MFG

Lysis And Nucleic Acid Isolation On A Thermoplastic Microfluidic Device For The Detection Of Infectious Disease

Abstract: Sepsis is the leading cause of death in severely ill patients in the U.S. and the thirteenth overall leading cause of death in the United States. Sepsis, commonly referred to as a blood infection, can be caused by a variety of infectious microbes, including bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites. Initially when sepsis is suspected in a patient diagnosis, a broad spectrum of antibiotics are given because determining the specificity of the infectious organism can take longer than 24 hours putting the patient in grave danger if therapy is not commenced. A quick test is needed for sepsis diagnosis.

Kloetzer PhD Final Defense, 4/11/08

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EDT

Boston University College of Engineering
Department of Manufacturing Engineering

Ph.D. Final Oral Examination

Marius Kloetzer, Ph.D. Candidate

Friday, April 11, 2008
15 Saint Mary’s Street, Room 105
11:00AM-1:00PM

Committee:
Prof. Calin Belta, MFG (Advisor)
Prof. Christos G. Cassandras, MFG
Prof. Pirooz Vakili, MFG
Prof. John Baillieul, AME/MFG
Prof. Ioannis Paschalidis, MFG (Chair)

Symbolic Motion Planning and Control

Abstract: Planning and controlling robot motion is a challenging problem that has received a lot of attention in recent years. The goal is to specify the task in a high-level language and have the robot(s) automatically convert the specification into low-level primitives, such as feedback controllers. The main challenge in the area is to allow for a rich specification language, while at the same time being able to accommodate robots with non-trivial dynamics or kinetics moving in complex environments. In most of the existing works, a motion planning task is simply specified as “go from A to B (while avoiding obstacles)”. In this thesis, we develop frameworks allowing for “rich” and “human-like” task specifications, such as temporal and logic statements about the reachability of regions of interest (e.g., “avoid B until A is visited, then go to B, and after that keep surveying C and D”). We first focus on the single agent case and provide computational frameworks for automatic deployment of robots with non-trivial dynamics in 2D and 3D environments. We then extend the framework to the multi-agent case and provide a methodology for automatic synthesis of both controllers and communication protocols for distributed teams.