JPL's Advanced Technologies Group
and NDEAA Lab
The members of the
JPL's Electroactive Technologies Group from left to right: Drs. Stewart
Sherrit, Mircea Badescu, Xiaoqi Bao (Retired on May 31, 2022), Yosi Bar-Cohen,
Zensheu Chang, Mike Lih and Hyeong Jae Lee (became a member of another group as
of June 5, 2023).
EDUCATION OUTREACH
The JPL's Electroactive Technologies Group is proactively seeking cooperation with universities both by direct collaboration with the department professors and technical staff as well as using the various programs of the JPL Educational Affairs Department including Faculty Fellow, Interns, Summer Students, SURF, and many others. The professors, postdocs and students who worked at the JPL's NDEAA Lab or participated in a joint program with the Electroactive Technologies Group are listed chronologically below.
Photos of the NDEAA team’s technical activity
Photos of the NDEAA team’s social activity
Former members of the group
Worked in our group 355N as a postdoc from August
27, 2012, to June 23, 2014, and then as full-time employee member of the group
from June 23, 2014, to June 5, 2023. On
June 5, 2023, he joined the group 355Z, JPL.
Worked
in the group for 25 years from May 20, 1997, to May 31, 2022
Postdoctoral Scholars
The
following individuals have been Postdocs at the NDEAA Technologies Lab
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Dr. Virginia Olazabal |
Dr. José-María Sansiñena |
Dr. Stewart Sherrit |
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Dr. Mircea Badescu (right) with Dr. Sherrit (left) at Mount Hood, OR |
Dr. Jack Aldrich |
Dr. Hyeong Jae Lee |
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Dr. Hamid Chabok |
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Dr.
Hamid Chabok, Transducer for downhole acoustic modem - Nov. 10, 2014 to Nov. 9, 2015; and Auto-Gopher-2, Nov. 10, 2016 to
Feb. 8, 2016.
Dr. Hyeong Jae Lee,
piezoelectric actuators, August 27, 2012 – June 23, 2014
Dr. Jack Aldrich,
Fast and Quite Ultrasonic Drill, Caltech Postoctoral
Scholar, Nov. 28, 2004 - May 26, 2006
Dr. Mircea Badescu,
USDC, Caltech Postoctoral Scholar, Feb. 20, 2004 -
Feb. 4, 2005
Dr.
Virginia Olazabal, "Electroactive Polymers", January 10, 2000 -
August 15, 2001 (initially as a Research Affiliate and from August 3, 2000 as a Caltech Postoctoral
Scholar)
Dr.
José-María Sansiñena, "Electroactive Polymers", Postoctoral
Scholar, January 10, 2000 - May 11, 2001
Dr. Stewart
Sherrit, "Ultrasonic/Sonic Drilling and Coring," Caltech Postoctoral Scholar, Sept. 1998 - April 16, 2001
Dr.
Sean Leary, "Electroactive Polymers", Caltech Postoctoral
Scholar, March 1997 - July 12, 2000
Dr.
Tianji Xue, "Electroactive Polymers", Caltech Postoctoral
Scholar, June 1996 - April 30, 1998
Dr.
Atish Sen, "Piezoelectric Actuators," JPL Postoctoral
Scholar, June 1993 - Sept. 1994
Visiting
Scientists
Visiting Professor
Dr. Ashot Djrbashian, Glendale Community College, Glendale, CA – June
18 to August 23, 2012
Dr. Djrbashian spent his summer working with Dr. Stewart Sherrit and Samuel Case Bradford on “Analysis of the Impedance Resonance of Piezoelectric Multi-fiber Composite Stacks”. They investigated the use of impedance resonances of monolithic co-fired piezoelectric stacks to determine the complex material constants from the impedance data.
2009
Visiting Professor
Dr Jesse Yen,
Biomedical Engineering Department, USC – September 2 to 24, 2009
Dr Jesse Yen of USC's
biomedical engineering department spent part of his sabbatical working with Dr.
Stewart Sherrit on the dynamic modeling of flextensional transducers.
Student
Interns
2024
JPL Year-Round Internship Program
Joseph Vizcarra – Mechanical Engineering, Cal State
University, Los Angeles, July 5, 2022 – April 4, 2024
During his internship at the NDEAA lab, Joseph worked
primarily on the development of wireless communication through ice under the Concepts
for Ocean worlds Life Detection Technology (COLDTech) task. His work involved design
and fabrication of high- and low-frequency transceivers, which were used successfully
in a field test in Alaska. He also worked on testing the transceivers operation
in ice. He has been included as a
coauthor in two publications that were presented at a
IEEE Aerospace Conference and SPIE Symp. Additionally, Joseph helped the
assembly of components for PICASSO and conEdison tasks.
George Lewis Lamb –
MSc Aerospace, Technical University of Munich – JPL Visiting Student Researcher
Program (JVSRP), from August 14, 2023, to March 29, 2024.
During his internship in the Group, under the mentorship
of Dr. Stewart Sherrit, George worked on the development of piezoelectric
flexure actuators for surface parallel actuation in next-gen space telescopes.
As part of the Image Retrieval In Segments (IRIS)
project, he conducted a characterization and flexure test campaign.
Additionally, he contributed to developing a dynamic network model of
piezoelectric flexure actuators. His contributions are recognized in the
co-authorship of two papers: ‘Characterization
of surface parallel mirror actuation using preloaded commercial lead zirconate
titanate (PZT) stacks’ and ‘A network
model for piezoelectric flexure actuators’, the latter of which he
presented at SPIE Smart Structures + NDE 2024 in Long Beach, CA.
2023
JPL Year-Round Internship Program
Diego W Camacho, Mechanical Engineering, Oregon State University.
Funded by the Oregon Space Grant, from Sept. 5 to Dec. 22, 2023
During his internship, Diego worked on tasks for several different projects. On Concepts for Ocean worlds Life Detection Technology (COLDTech), he aided with the design and testing of a heater system to melt out piezoelectric transducers used for under-ice communications. He soldered and assembled several heater-transducer sets which were used successfully during testing on a field trip in Alaska. He also worked on the Image Retrieval In Segments (IRIS) task, conducting tests to study surface parallel mirror actuation using piezoelectric stacks bonded into flexures. He bonded strain gauges and flexures into test ribs of two different material types and conducted an open circuit thermal strain analysis when taken down to 100K. Using a LABview script, he did creep and crosstalk tests on 42 actuators bonded to the back of an aluminum mirror segment. At the same time, he created a parametric flexure model in SolidWorks for frequency simulation. His work on the IRIS tasks led him to be a co-author two papers that will be presented at the SPIE Smart Structures Conference in March 2024.
Trinity
Josephine Neades - Aerospace Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona - from June 12, 2023,
to August 18, 2023
Funded
by CA Space Grant, Trinity worked during her internship at the NDEAA Lab of the
Group 355N. She aided in the CAD design
of a piezoelectric motor utilizing a V-shaped configuration. This is an ongoing NASA STMD task that is
intended to eventually enable operation at extremely cold and dusty
environments.
Cameron James Hartley –
Electromechanical Systems Engineering Technology, Cal Poly Pomona – from
January 23, 2023, to July 21, 2023
During his internship at the
NDEAA Lab, Cameron aided in the mechanical design for Phase I developing an
intelligent drill (funded by GDMS). He
also supported other tasks such as COLDTech and STMD in prototyping as well as
doing CAD designs assistance.
Aren
Petrossian - Mechanical Engineering, California State University, Los Angeles -
September 13, 2021, to May 26, 2023
During
his internship at the NDEAA lab, Aren worked primarily on the development of wireless
cryogenic communication through ice for Concepts for Ocean worlds Life
Detection Technology (COLDTech). He had
also assisted with the development of a steam pipe safety monitoring system for
Consolidated Edison (ConEd). For the COLDTech task,
Aren designed multiple low-temperature test experiments to measure the acoustic
attenuation and study the properties of ice. This included the prototyping,
machining, assembly, and data analysis for all the experiments, as well as the
Python and LabVIEW programming of data acquisition and signal processing. For
the ConEd task, Aren focused on the fabrication and
characterization of four probes for non-destructively measuring the water
height in high-temperature steam pipes, as well as the complete wiring and
assembly of its Unit 2 electronics box.
2022
JPL Year-Round Internship Program
Olivia Ernst -
Mechanical Engineering & Aerospace Engineering, California Institute of
Technology (Caltech), October 4, 2021 to Jan. 21, 2022
and from March 28, 2022 to December 9, 2022
During her time as an intern in Group 355N, Olivia supported the Elastic Wave Analyzer for Icy Sub-surfaces (EWAIS) task. Olivia provided a theoretical background for low frequency attenuation at cryogenic temperatures. She also assembled and tested high frequency piezoelectric probes, prepared various ice columns and testbeds to characterize and test hardware components, and worked on developing a signal processing algorithm using LabVIEW to analyze acoustic communication through ice.
Nareg Krikor
Shirajian- Mechanical Engineering, California State University, Northridge,
November 18, 2019 - September 16, 2022
During his internship in the Electroactive Technologies
group, Nareg supported three tasks, Mars Sample Return (MSR),
Elastic Wave Analyzer for Icy Sub-surfaces (EWAIS), and Motors for Dusty
and Extremely Cold Environments (MDECE). His involvement in MSR included; developing LabVIEW test programs, integrating
thermocouples and force sensors inside a large vacuum chamber, and the full
operation of an induction heating system used for brazing applications. In
the EWAIS task, Nareg assembled, wired, and tested the low-frequency
transducer, he addressed and solved the issues related to the fabrication
of the individual components. Lastly, Nareg played a critical role in the
development of a linear piezoelectric actuator for the MDECE task. He developed LabVIEW testing programs for
characterizing piezoelectric stacks at cryogenic temperatures,
planned and constructed test setups, assembled and assessed the
performance of the motor, and developed the drive electronics.
Martin Peticco –
Mechanical Engineering & Aerospace – California Institute of Technology
(Caltech) - March 28, 2022 to May 27, 2022
During his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA lab, Martin aided in the development and testing of a proof-of-concept linear piezoelectric motor under the NASA STMD/MDECE task. This motor was under development for use in extremely cold and dusty environments particularly for potential lunar missions. His work included making mechanical improvements to the current design to properly allow the piezoelectric stacks to “walk” the output bar forward, along with making various fixtures to clean up the design and for proper testing. Jointly with the other team members, the motor was taken from a non-working state at to a working state where velocity data was recorded.
2021
JPL Year-Round Internship Program
Maikel Heness - Mechanical Eng., California
State University, Northridge (CSUN), 03-25-2019 to 08-06-2021
During his internship, Maikel worked at the NDEAA lab, JPL, on two tasks. This include the development of a drill that can penetrate extremely hard materials. This task has been part of a subcontract from PaR system, where he helped designing and testing drills that are driven by piezoelectric actuators. The second task has been a NASA PICASSO program funded and it is entitled Elastic Wave Analyzer for Icy Sub-surfaces (EWAIS). The EWAIS is an instrument that is being developed for potential ocean world missions with focus on Europa related requirements. He helped designing and machining the housing and mount of the low and high frequency transducers and the testing process.
Ricardo Chaparro-Jeronimo - Mechanical engineering, Cal State Los
Angeles, 01-21-2020
to 06-04-2021
As an intern of the Electroactive
Technologies group and its NDEAA Lab, Ricardo worked on design, analysis,
simulation, fabrication, and testing of sensor related applications.
2020
JPL Year Round Internship Program
Andrew
Heness - Mechanical Engineering – Cal State University Northridge, November 18,
2019 to September 25, 2020.
During his internship at the NDEAA Lab, Andrew worked on an
Enceladus task which is developing a sampling system for a potential lander
mission. Andrew helped design components for a testbed that integrates the
sampling tool into a portable vacuum chamber to be tested in a series of zero-g
flights. In addition, he worked on a testbed for a microwave mass flow sensor
to determine the mass of a sample flowing through a tube by collecting and
analyzing the data to collaborate the results with the instrument measurements.
He worked as part of a team of engineers and interacted with outside vendors to
identify and get quotes for components needed in the testbed.
Sidra Gibeault -
Mechanical engineering, Cal State Los Angeles, September 30, 2019
to August 21, 2020
During her time as an NDEAA Lab intern, Sidra worked on the development of a non-invasive steam pipe safety monitoring system. Her primary tasks included manufacturing and testing transducers for high temperature environments, writing programs for transducer signal processing, participating in the selection of electronics components for a SCADA system, and designing an electronics housing unit to maximize heat dissipation from components.
Bryan Tan Anh Nguyen
– Mechanical Engineering, Cal State LA (CSULA), April 15, 2019
to May 19, 2020
As part of the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA lab, Bryan worked on testing and troubleshooting a sample extractor for the Ocean Worlds Life Surveyor (OWLS) project. His primary tasks included completing the test matrix for the extractor assembly and source any components needed for the field campaign that took place at the CalTech facility in Newport Beach. In addition, he assisted with the brass board design in preparation for the next iteration of the extractor.
Maung Myat Garry Thu
– Mechanical Engineering, Cal State LA (CSULA), from Sept 30. 2019 to May 15,
2020
As an intern at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Garry worked on a Mars Sample Return (MSR) related task that involves developing a mechanism of Break the Chain of Contact (BTC) with Mars. He participated in the development of the design and application of asynchronous control of the inputs from the sensors as well as the actuator using inter-process communication (IPC). He also helped performing vacuum brazing experiments inside a quarter-scale vacuum chamber.
Joseph Daniel Iorio,
Mechanical engineering, Cal State Los Angeles, April 8, 2019
to Jan. 16, 2020
During his internship, Daniel worked on the development of ruggedized buoyant memory modules and sensors. This task involved mechanical design and analysis, fabrication (machining, 3D printing, and assembly), and some microcontroller programming. Daniel’s contributions to this task were in the design and assembly of a two phase fluid-flow testbed, as well as the design of an electronics housing unit that was lightweight, buoyant in two phase flow, and resistant to harsh environments.
2019
JPL Year Round Internship Program
Erik Mendoza Bombela – Cal Poly Pomona - Manufacturing Engineering from
12-19-2017 to 12-12-2019
During his internship, Erik worked on technology development tasks related to the future potential Mars Sample Return mission. This consisted of implementing mechanisms of breaking the chain for returned sample containers. He tested 3D printed containers as alternative to traditional manufacturing in order to reduce fabrication time and cost of the complex geometry containers. The containers were vacuum induction brazed and have been proven to hold vacuum without leaking. He also tested the use of Gold-Tin solder as a means of reducing the processing temperature and the required power. Erik also explored various methods of pre-attaching the braze material to eliminate dislocation of the filler material. The methods that he was involved with testing included Cold Spray, Micro TIG Welding, Dovetail Press fits and the use of Flux to pre-coat mating surfaces. He also designed and machined parts and fixtures that were used for the testing of containers.
Sukhwinder Singh
Sandhu – Materials Science, Cal Poly Pomona (CPP), from May 21, 2018 to October 10, 2019
During his internship, Sam contributed to two tasks:
·
Mars Sample Return (Break the Chain of
Contact (BTC) with Mars) - He helped integrating the system controls and user
interface to perform vacuum brazing inside the full scale
BCC Chamber as well as the testing of the chamber operation and other brazing
experiments.
· PaRoD – Assisted in the assembly of the testbed and the testing of the coring drill under development towards improving the Piezo Augmented Rotary Drill (PaRoD) capability.
Nikhil Pawar-
Mechanical Engineering, UCLA, Jan. 7, 2019 to June 7,
2019
As a part of the Electroactive Technologies Group and its
NDEAA Lab, Nikhil furthered the development of a high-pressure, low-temperature
hydraulic testbed. The device is being developed for Icy World Interiors (SIWI)
simulating the interiors of icy worlds such as Europa and Ganymede. His primary
task was to complete the pressure system and his task included implementing
auxiliary systems such as thermal regulation and data acquisition.
Additionally, he developed testing and operating procedures for the related
testbed.
Justin Mendelson –
Mechanical Engineering, USC, December 17, 2018 to
April 25, 2019
At the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA lab, Justin worked on assembling and testing a sample extraction chamber for the Ocean Worlds Life Surveyor (OWLS) project. His primary work consisted of troubleshooting the mechanical assembly and pressure system, and working to design and implement solutions to these issues. In addition, Justin also helped to develop the testing environment and schedule for the extraction chamber in order to best meet the mission parameters.
Simon Rufer - Mechanical Engineering, UCLA, June 25, 2018 to March 7, 2019
While working in the
Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA lab, Simon conducted extensive
testing to determine the functional dependencies of drill rate and efficiency
for coring extremely hard materials (Mohs > 8) using ultrasonic piezo-augmented
drilling methods. Lessons learned from these tests are being used to develop a
drill to help with the nuclear waste cleanup in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear
Power plant. Simon also designed, manufactured, and assembled fixtures for a
new, more rigid testbed for developing and testing a novel coring system
breadboard.
2018
JPL Year Round Internship Program
Lacy Schneemann -
Mechanical Engineering, USC, June 4, 2018 to December
14, 2018
As a part of the Electroactive Technologies Group and its
NDEAA Lab, Lacy contributed to the development of a high-pressure,
low-temperature hydraulic testbed intended to simulate the interiors of icy
worlds such as Europa and Ganymede (SIWI). Her primary tasks included the
design and manufacturing of system components as well as assembly of the
high-pressure system. In addition, she integrated an extensive temperature,
pressure, and sound speed data measurement system and automated it using
LabVIEW.
Zachary Valles - Mechanical Engineering, University of
California Riverside (UCR), January 22 to November 29, 2018.
At the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA
Lab, Zac was involved in the development of a drill that is capable of
penetrating extremely hard materials as expected in the dismantling of the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. His primary roles were the design and
manufacturing of test beds, conducting experiments to determine requirements
for the coring bit, and optimizing mechanical parameters of the drill
operation. Additionally, he assisted in the design of test benches,
manufacturing, and testing for the Auto-Gopher-2 (wireline deep drill) and the
Mars Sample Return (MSR) task.
Julia Wang--Mechanical Engineering, USC, April 2 to
November 29, 2018
While interning with the NDEAA Lab of the
Electroactive Technologies Group at JPL, Julia worked on designing,
developing, and assembling a sample extraction chamber for the Ocean Worlds
Life Surveyor (OWLS) project. The
chamber consists of a linear actuator, a pressure system, and a test
enclosure. In addition, she assisted
with troubleshooting and finishing the Capillary Electrophoresis Mass
Spectrometer (CEMS) sample extractor, which was a related project that was
previously built by the Electroactive Technologies Group.
Eduardo Salazar –
Electromechanical Systems Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona (CPP), April 10, 2017 to June 4, 2018
During
his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab,
Eduardo assisted with the design of test fixtures, manufacturing, prototyping,
testing, and documentation for multiple tasks. Initially, he was involved with
testing and analysis related to the Mars sample return (MSR)
containerization. This was followed with
spiral development of a 100,000-psi pressure system for impulsive stimulated
scattering and other optical measurements to simulate icy world interiors
(SIWI).
Alejandro Gonzalez–
Aerospace Engineering, USC, Nov. 6, 2017 to May 1,
2018
During
his internship at the NDEAA lab, Alejandro worked on the Mars Sample Return
(MSR) Break the Chain (BTC) technology development task. As part of this task
Alejandro worked on test methodologies related to measuring material properties
and strengths of braze materials that are being considered for use in the BTC
process. Additionally, as the task proceeded towards TRL6, Alejandro tested and
prepared actuators in support of the measurement instruments that will be used
for processing of the full scale BTC containers.
Cameron Linsey,
University of California at Riverside (UCR), Mechanical Engineering, 03-27-2017
to 3-06, 2018
During his internship, Cameron
contributed to the Mars Sample Return (MSR) – Break the Chain of Contamination
(MSR-BTC) task. His primary contributions include redesigning and manufacturing
the test bed for the brazing of the quarter-scale spherical container as well
as designing and manufacturing the test bed for 4” cylindrical container.
Additionally, he was responsible for developing and testing a method of
pre-attaching braze material on the test containers that can potentially
sustain launch forces. Although a final decision regarding the pre-attachment
method has not been made, Cameron’s efforts helped narrow the search down to
approximately four options.
JPL Visiting Student Research Program (JVSRP)
Luis Phillipe Tosi, PhD candidate at the California
Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, June
2016-February 2018
During
his work at the NDEAA Lab, on his experimental part of his PhD dissertation,
Phillipe focused on the development of robust flow energy technology. Specifically, he carried out experiments to
assess fluid-structure mechanisms that give rise to system instability.
Phillipe showed that limit cycles arise through a subcritical hopf bifurcation, yielding it into a high
power generation regime, with structural damping playing a large role in
the critical flow rate, and stiffness on voltage output.
2017
JPL Year Round Internship Program
Thomas Kutzer –
Mechanical Engineering, USC, Los Angeles, CA, Nov 7, 2016
to Jan 18, 2018
During
his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab Thomas
worked pm several tasks. These include assisting with the final stages of
design, fabrication and testing of a microfluidic sub-critical water extractor
instrument. Then, he worked on the design, fabrication, and testing of a Mars
sample return (MSR) container, which uses induction brazing to break the chain
of contact with Mars. His focus was on optimizing the testing system: cutting
down the fabrication time, introducing infrared imaging, and determining the
materials as well as the timing of the heating process. This work was in
preparation for project review and reaching TRL 5, towards automating the
testing process. Thomas also worked on the fabrication and testing of the
rotary-impact hammer Auto-Gopher II, fabricating and testing the piezo-electric
actuators. In addition, he assisted with
3D printing of parts as well as managed the safety throughout the lab.
Clark Rothenberg – Mechanical Engineering,
USC, Los Angeles, CA, 10-09-2017 to Dec. 6, 2017.
In support of the development of Break the Chain mechanism for
potentially returned samples, Clark worked on compiling literature reported
properties of molten brazing for modeling the behavior in zero-gravity. In addition, he designed experiments to
empirically determining the properties of the specific braze materials that are
being considered. He also wrote scripts
for the control of vacuum rated linear actuators that will be used in the
experimental testing of the Break the Chain Process.
Alan Simonini - Aerospace Engineering,
USC, Los Angeles, CA, Jan 7, 2017 to Aug 17, 2017
During his internship at the
Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Alan assisted with multiple
tasks, initially testing and analysis for an ultrasonic water height measuring
device for fluid flow applications. After completion of this task, Alan
assisted with design, fabrication, and scrutinous testing of the rotary-impact
hammer Auto-Gopher II drill device.
Sergio Campos – Cal Poly Pomona (CPP), Sept. 28, 2015 to March 9, 2017
During his internship at the
Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Sergio assisted in the
design, fabrication, and development of a containerization method that uses
induction brazing for sealing and sterilization that may potentially be used
for samples returned from Mars.
2016
JPL Year Round Internship Program
Jake (Jacob) Chesin – Electromechanical
Systems Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona (CPP), Sept. 28, 2015
to Dec. 30, 2016
During his internship at the Electroactive
Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Jake worked on an energy harvester and a
deep drill that are using piezoelectric transducers. In the first eight months, he supported the
development of a Flow Energy Harvester (FEH) device and his work included
designing, producing and testing the components and
the device. In the remainder of his
internship, he worked on the development the Auto-Gopher II for which he
supported the design and fabrication of the drill percussive actuator and the
auger bit as well as the testing of their performance.
David Freeman – Mechanical
Engineering, USC, August 24, 2015 to December 19, 2016
During his internship at the Electroactive
Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, David Assisted in the design,
fabrication, and development of advanced technologies that included a core
sample extraction system for Auto-Gopher II, the ultrasonic Smart Wire,
Piezo-electric Mass Sensor, and a Mars sample return container (MSR), which
utilizes induction brazing to break the chain of contact with Mars.
Nobi
(Nobuyuki) Takano – Manufacturing Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona (undergraduate)/
Mechanical Engineering, Penn State University (online graduate school), August
24, 2012 to Nov. 11, 2016
During his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Nobi was involved with a number of tasks including the development of a microfluidic sub-critical water extractor (SCWE) instrument. His main focus was assisting in the design, fabrication, and testing of the SCWE system.
William A. Cervantes
– Mechanical Engineering, Cal Poly Pomona (CPP), 10-12-2015 to November 30,
2016
During
his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab,
William supported the effort of the development of health monitoring of steam
pipes by designing and building a test bed to test steady state flow and
turbulent flow. Also, he has done preliminary research, design, and 3D-printing
of an auger in support of the Auto-Gopher-2 task.
Benjamin Rhodes-Wickett, USC, Mechanical
Engineering, 03-16-2015 to 03-28-2016
During his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Ben supported the effort to develop and test the use of the brazing mechanism in preparations for the Mars Sample Return (MSR) Break The Chain of Contact (BTC) to Mars. His focus has been on making the demonstration of the breadboard that simulates the synchronous separation, seaming, sealing, and sterilization (S4) of the container with the returned samples.
Marissa Bell, USC, Mechanical Engineering,
08-24-2015 thru 03-28-2016
During her
internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Marissa
supported the effort to develop and test the valve mechanism for downhole
drilling as well as the signal processing of the ultrasonic reflections from
multiple pulse-echo probes as part of the development of health monitoring of
steam pipes.
2015
Summer Internship
Alex Baratta - Mechanical Engineering, USC, June 17 to
August 20, 2015
During his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Al supported the effort to develop and test Smart Valve that controls fluid flow.
Alex Chen - Mechanical Engineering, USR, June 17 to September 3, 2015
During his internship at the Electroactive Technologies
Group and its NDEAA Lab, Ales supported the effort to develop and test
piezoelectric based Energy Flow Harvesting mechanism and devices.
Maximizing
Student Potential (MSP) in STEM program
Ernesto Peralta - Mechanical Engineering, UC Irvine, June
15 to August 20, 2015
During his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Ernesto assisted the effort to develop a brazing process as part of the Mars Sample Return (MRS) Technology development. He focused on creating an animation video that illustrates the steps in producing demonstration containers.
JPL Year Round Internship Program
David Packard - Mechanical Engineering, UC Riverside,
Dec. 1, 2014 to June 05, 2015
During his internship at the Electroactive Technologies
Group and its NDEAA Lab, David supported the effort to develop a brazing method
that allows for simultaneously perform separation, seaming, sealing, and
sterilization (S4) of breadboard containers in support of potential future Mars
Sample Return mission.
Minority Education
Initiatives Interns/Minority Scholars Program
Tyler Frederick Winn - Mechanical
Engineering, UC Riverside, Sept. 2, 2014 to June 12,
2015
During his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Tyler supported the effort to develop and test breadboards of energy harvesters that employ piezoelectric mechanisms using the vibrations generated by fluid flow.
Marzieh Mandizadeh, PhD candidate at UCLA (University
of California, Los Angeles), Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
Nov. 2014 to May 2015
During her work on the MSR related task she was involved with the development of the experiment setup, tests and analysis. Her work consisted of brazing experiments using steel cylinders and torch, oven and induction heating as part of the efforts to demonstrate the method as an effective container sealing technique. She did preliminary analysis of the brazing heat transfer in vacuum to predict the steady state and transient temperature distribution vs. location.
JPL Visiting Student Research Program (JVSRP)
Luca Vercellotti - Aerospace engineering, Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy, Oct. 6, 2014 to Feb. 27, 2015
During his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Luca worked on developing a novel rotary motor that is driven by piezoelectric stacks combined with flexures. Luca has done this study as part of his M.Sc. thesis.
2014
JPL Visiting Student Research Program (JVSRP)
Francesco Di Dea - Polytechnic University
of Turin, Italy. June 2, 2014 to Nov. 25, 2014
During
his internship at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab,
Francesco worked on developing a novel inchworm motor that is driven by
piezoelectric stacks. The motor has a
configuration that makes it applicable for a broad range of temperatures. Further, he made piezo-stack characterization
from room temperature to -160oC.
Francesco has done this study as part of his M.Sc. thesis.
JPL Year Round Internship Program
Jennifer Hasenoehrl, PhD Student, Mechanical
Engineering, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, October 8, 2012
to Sept. 26, 2014
During
her work at the Electroactive Technologies Group and its NDEAA Lab, Jennifer
worked on experimental and analytical tasks.
These included acquiring and analyzing performance data for novel
percussive augmenter of rotary drills and a piezo-ratcheting motor. She had also assisted in the development and
test phases of an energy harvesting task.
Following her work at the NDEAA Lab, Jennifer started working at the
JPL’s Payload Development Group.
Patrick Ostlund - Mechanical Engineering, Cal Poly,
Pomona, CA, Nov. 23, 2009 to July 3, 2014
Patrick Ostlund is a Mechanical Engineering student at Cal Poly, Pomona, CA (expects to graduate in Dec. 2014). During his internship at the NDEAA lab, he contributed to many of the tasks that the Group has been working on. Particularly, he performed design, fabrication, and testing of various mechanisms including the auto-gopher lab version, USDC, piezo-actuators, and many others.
Grayson Adams, USC,
Los Angeles, CA, January 13, to May 6, 2014
Grayson Adams is
a Mechanical Engineering student at USC (expects to graduate in May 2016). During his internship at the NDEAA lab, he
worked on improving the design of piezo-ratcheting actuators as well as the
design, fabrication, and test of a small vehicle that is driven by a dual-horn
configuration of such motor. He also developed software to process signals from
a torque measurement system that was used to characterize the actuator
performance.
Undergraduate Insternship
(UI)
Kevin Christensen, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, June 16 to
August 22, 2014
Kevin Christensen is a
Mechanical Engineering student at UCLA (expects to graduate in June
2016). During his internship at the NDEAA lab, he worked on the operation
and testing of the novel piezo-Barth motor breadboard that was reduced in rotor
diameter size from the original 4-in to 1-in. He performed tests on the
motor as well as worked on various methods of enhancing the performance.
2013
Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP)
Melissa Troutt - California State
Polytechnic University-Pomona, CA - July 1 to Sept. 5, 2013
During her summer
internship under the USRP, Melissa designed a specialized drill chuck for use
in the Auto-Gopher and potential future autonomous in-situ missions. The chuck
allows for bit changing when needed. In addition,
she performed exploratory testing of a half-scale piezo-ratcheting motor to
examine its characteristics. This
piezoelectric actuated motor was developed by the JPL’s Advanced Technologies
Group.
Grayson Adams, USC, Los Angeles, CA – Sept. 3, 2013 to Dec. 20, 2013
See
2014 – continued as Year-Round intern.
He worked on
improving the design of piezo-ratcheting actuators as well as the design,
fabrication, and test of a small vehicle that is driven by a dual-horn
configuration of such motor.
CSU Science Teacher and Researcher Program (CSU STAR)
Nicholas Morris, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN -
June 10, 2013 to August 8, 2013
During his summer internship under the STAR program, Nicholas embarked on two exploratory projects: Characterizing the drilling performance of a Percussive Augmenter of Rotary Drills (PARoD) and examining the feasibility of striking a pipe as a potential measurement assessment of water height inside the pipe.
Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP)
Louisa Taylor Avellar - University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley,
CA - Jan. 28, to May 10, 2013
During her spring internship under
USRP, Louisa developed a system configuration for powder sample transport to a
Venus lander. The challenges that she
dealt with involved addressing the effects of the high temperatures of about
460oC and about 90 atmospheres. Also, she worked on the testing of a
Titan sampler breadboard.
2012
Visiting Student Researchers Program (JVSRP)
Alessandro Bruno, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, University of Pisa, Italy - July 30, 2012 to September 28, 2012
During his summer internship as part of the JVSRP,
Alessandro worked on the task related to the Con-Edison contract where a health
monitoring system for steam pipes is being developed. Alessandro worked on the development and
testing of piezoelectric-based pulse-echo transducers. Also, he developed computer code for
interfacing electronic measurement devices and he
explored and tested different designs for ultrasonic transducers.
Extended
Space Grant Students
Scott Widholm, California Polytechnic University, Pomona -
May 19, 2009 to June 8, 2012
During his Space Grant internship, Scott was involved with a number of tasks including the development of pressure and
shear sensor array (under a contract from DoT); high temperature USDC (NASA’s
PIDDP task); Auto-Gopher (MASA’s ASTEP task); and health monitoring of steam
pipes using ultrasonics (under a contract from Con-Edison). Also, as needed, he assisted with other tasks
of the Advanced Technologies Group and got broad training in the various
tools. Specifically, he was responsible
for conducting ultrasonic actuator experiments, as well as the designing, building and repairing test fixtures. The main tests he was responsible for were
ultrasonic drilling of basalt at 500°C and determining water condensation
height inside steam pipes at 250°C, but also conducted tests of a fluid flow
shear stress sensor, an ultrasonic rotary-hammer drill augmenter, an ultrasonic
rotary motor, and acoustic levitation using a piezoelectric actuator. Other duties included operation and
modification of Labview programs and maintenance of
lab area and equipment.
2011
Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP)
Aaron Ressa is a third
year mechanical engineering student at The Ohio State University. – Sept. 6 to Dec. 16, 2011
During his
internship at the NDEAA lab he worked on the fabrication, assembly, and initial
testing of the Percussive Augmenter of rotary drills that drive 2” diameter
bits. He also developed software to process the ultrasonic signals in a health
monitor system that is being developed for steam pipes.
Chris Donnelly is a fourth
year mechanical engineering student at Rochester Institute of Technology
– June 13 to Aug. 19, 2011
In the NDEAA Lab,
he worked on the control program and testing for the Percussive Augmenter of
Rotary Drills (PARoD) that drive 0.25” diameter bits, and preliminary modal
analysis of the coring model. The tests compared penetration rates using PARoD
(percussion and rotation) to only rotation and showed an order of magnitude
improvement.
Lukas Domm, Dalhousie University, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada – Jan. 25 to May 6, 2011
Luke is a junior
in mechanical engineering. During his internship at the NDEAA lab, he worked on
the development of a Piezoelectric Rotary Hammer Drill. Working closely with
Dr. Stewart Sherrit, the drill’s designer, he modeled, fabricated, and tested
an initial drill prototype.
2010
Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP)
Robert Rovai, The University
of Southern California, Los Angeles CA – Sept. 1 to Dec. 14, 2010
Robert is a senior Aerospace Engineering student. While interning at JPL in the NDEAA group through USRP, he designed, conducted, analyzed, and presented a series of experiments using the lab version of the rotary-percussive AutoGopher drill. The purpose of the experiments was to gain a better understanding of how the drill's operating parameters affect the drilling speed and efficiency.
Beck Chen,
Princeton University, Princeton, NJ - June 14 to Aug. 20, 2010
For Beck this has been his second NASA USRP internship at the
NDEAA lab. During this second term, he
designed and ran drill tests to investigate the effects of various parameters
on the lab prototype Auto-Gopher, which is rotary-percussive drill, to
determine its performance characteristics. In addition, he modified the
existing control software and implemented an alternative method to track the
optimal drive frequency in Labview. Beck is currently a mechanical engineering
master’s student at Princeton University and expects to graduate in Dec. 2010.
Daniel
Geiyer, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, NY – March 1 to June 11, 2010
Daniel is a Mechanical Engineering student. During his USRP internship at the Advanced
Technologies Group, JPL, he assisted its scientists assembling and testing the AutoGopher breadboard and the related testbed, designing a
novel ultrasonic motor, and aided in conducting measurements simulated
condensed water in steam pipe at 250oC using a HT ultrasonic
pulse/echo transducer.
Intern
and Academic Part Time (APT)
James
Scott, California Polytechnic University, Pomona - Nov. 13, 2006
to Feb. 25, 2010
Jim worked as an APT in the Advanced Technologies Group, for just over 3 years.
He supported the activity of many of the Group tasks including the development
of the Ferrosource, testbed for the high temperature
sampler, the testing of drilling via rotary/hammering drill, fabrication of
varieties of bit designs for the USDC and helped designs, computer programming,
and testing.
Student Independent Research Internship (SIRI)
Phillip Allen, California Polytechnic University, Pomona –
Sept. 14,2009 to January 28, 2010.
Phillip Allen is a Junior Mechanical Engineering student at Cal Poly
Pomona. He worked on the development of
a novel piezoelectric actuated motor. He
worked closely with Dr. Stewart Sherrit and Dr. Mircea Badescu. His work was under the Student Independent
Research Internship (SIRI) program and his task was a school credited project.
2009
Undergraduate Student Research Program (USRP)
Beck Chen, UCLA,
Los Angeles, CA. - Sept.2, 2009 to Dec. 15, 2009
Beck Chen is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from UCLA. As a USRP intern, he worked with Dr. Mircea Badescu on designing the Auto-Gopher’s rotary-percussive drill bit in Unigraphics. He also integrated a software package involving Matlab, C++, ANSYS, and Windows batch programming to simulate the dynamics of the Auto-Gopher. In addition, Beck worked with Dr. Xiaoqi Bao on processing data obtained from an optical encoder and a laser interferometer for a Department of Transportation task.
2008
Academic Part Time (APT)
Christopher M. Jones, California Polytechnic University, Pomona - Feb. 7, 2005 to May 30, 2008
During
his over 3 years of work at the NDEAA Lab he contributed in
a variety of ways. Initially, he was responsible for fabricating various parts
but increasingly took responsibilities of a manufacturing engineer and made
many design suggestions to save cost and time. He became evolved with the
design and testing in most of the major tasks of the NDEAA Lab ranging from
sample acquisition to working for the space interferometery
mission. In his third year, he became involved with developing software and
setting up hardware for data acquisition doing characterization analysis and
automated lifetime testing of PZT and other actuators.
Summer Intern
Sahar Maghsoudy Louyeh – June 1 to July
31, 2008
Sahar Maghsoudy Louyeh is a PhD student at Pennsylvania State University in engineering mechanics major. She worked with Dr. Xiaoqi Bao and Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen on the actuation effect of surface acoustic wave on transporting sample materials. She studied the behavior of powders and fluids that were subjected to the wave field and acquired data for various drive conditions and sample characteristics.
Summer
Space Grant Students
Kate
Boudreau, University of Washington, Seattle - June 18 to August 22, 2008
Kate
Boudreau is a Mechanical Engineering graduate from the University of Idaho in
Moscow, Idaho. As a space grant intern,
Katie evaluated and made recommendations about the design and performance of
the USDC at 500oC. This task
is seeking to address the need of future NASA missions and other projects that
will require the use of a sampler at very high temperatures as on Venus. Katie is working towards her master’s degree
in mechanical engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Andy Hedge,
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona - June 18 to August 22, 2008
Andy Hedge is a fourth year Mechanical Engineering student at Cal Poly Pomona. Andy has worked on assembling a test rig for an ultrasonic/sonic driller/corer (USDC) to control the preload using a voice coil. He has also written data acquisition software to analyze the current of the drill to detect impacts of the free mass against the horn; the more preload applied, the more often the impacts occur. Using this data, an optimal preload can be found where the drill is most efficient.
2007
Summer Space Grant Student
Will Biederman, University of Washington, Seattle - June 11 to August 17, 2007
Will
Biederman is an Electrical Engineering major at the University of Washington in
Seattle. As a Space Grant intern in the Summer of 2007, Will was involved with
the improvement and optimization of the novel wireless power transmission
system using acousto-electric feedthru to meet the
1kW transmission goal. This task is seeking to address the need of future NASA
missions and other projects that will require the transmission of power into a
metallically isolated area.
2006
Summer Space Grant Student
Steve
Kassab working on the rotary-hammering USDC
Steve Kassab - Purdue University, June 12 to August 18, 2006
Steve Kassab is an Aerospace Engineering student from Purdue University. He
worked with Dr. Mircea Badescu on the design and development of a bit rotation
mechanism to support the operation of the USDC and enhance its drilling rate
and penetration depth. Baseline data was acquired on a non-rotary USDC system
to provide future comparison to the recently designed rotational system.
Minority Education Initiatives (shown in the
photo from left to right Dean, Joel and Dylan)
Byron
Dean Pershall, Faculty advisor, Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute
(SIPI), June 19 to August 25, 2006
Dean served as a Faculty advisor for Dylan J Maho and Joel V Armour,
supervising and participating in their technical tasks by relating their
circuit design, fabrication, and troubleshooting experiences to the educational
material they have studied. At SIPI, Dean is an Electronics Technology and
Mathematics Instructor . Previously, for 20 years he
was a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories in
Albuquerque, NM.
Dylan J Maho, Electrical Engineering student, Southwestern Indian
Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), June 19 to August 25, 2006
Dylan Maho specialized in the hardware of the Operation Amplifier along with
Dr. Jack Aldrich and Dave Natzic. He also assisted in
the integration of LabView programming to incorporate interferometer testing of
the performance of PZT stacks. Further, he participated in the studies of the
requirements to establish a Mars yard for robotics competitions at SIPI.
Joel V Armour, Electrical Engineering student, Southwestern Indian
Polytechnic Institute (SIPI), June 19 to August 25, 2006
Joel Armour worked with Dr. Jack Aldrich along with Dave Natzic
on the integration and fabrication of current sensor boxes and an operational
amplifier. The two items were developed to drive the USDC and optimize its
performance. He also assisted Dr. Aldrich and Chris Jones in testing SIM
piezoelectric stacks.
Byron Dean Pershall (left bottom) and his students
Dylan J Maho and Joel V Armour.
2005
Intern and Academic Part Time (APT)
Randy
Stark - June 21, 2004 to Feb. 18, 2005
Randy
Stark working with the Gopher’s actuator.
At
the JPL’s NDEAA Lab, Randy Stark started as an intern and in September 2004 he
switched to an APT. During this period, he was a senior student at California
Polytechnic University, Pomona studying Mechanical Engineering. His worked on design and fabrication for many different
projects. Specifically, he assisted Dr. Xiaoqi Bao is making various types of
Ultrasonic transducers; Dr. Stewart Sherrit in the design of the sample pod for
the Jupiter Icy Moon Lander; and Dr. Mircea Badescu with the manufacturing of
several horn designs for the Ultrasonic Ice drill, "Gopher". Randy
left the NDEAA lab towards his becoming a full time
employee of JPL in March 2005 as a Manufacturing engineer upon the completion
of his Bachelors degree.
SURF Student
Vanessa
Heckman June 20 to August 26, 2005
Vanessa
Heckman working with the actuator for accelerated fatigue test.
Vanessa
Heckman is a Mechanical Engineering major at the California Institute of
Technology. During the summer of 2005 she worked at our lab as a SURF Student
for 10 weeks. She worked mostly under the guidance of Dr. Stewart Sherrit and
Dr. Mircea Badescu on the development of a method of accelerating fatigue
tests. She was involved in all aspects of the test fixture development
including designing models in SolidWorks, performing stress analysis in MATLAB
and ANSYS, and performing experiments.
2004
Academic Part Time (APT)
James
Wincentsen - Nov. 17, 2003 to June 9, 2004
James Wincentsen testing the USDC.
James
Wincentsen is a mechanical engineer student at California Polytechnic
University Pomona. James worked with Dr. Xiaoqi Bao to design a radial loaded
USDC drill and with Dr. Shyh-Shiuh Lih to build components for a
multifunctional ferrosource device. James also worked
with Dr. Stewart Sherrit on a robotic application for the USDC, in which
anchoring drill bits were mated to the Lemur robot headed by Brett Kennedy.
James is currently working for the Mechanical Engineering section.
Summer Intern
Susan
Bley - from June 14, 2004 to August 20, 2004
Susan Bley
at the NDEAA Lab
Susan
Bley is a Mechanical Engineering student at the University of Tulsa. As a
summer intern she helped Dr. Jiunn Jeng Wu with a brazing task involving the
simultaneous separation, seaming and sealing of a
container that is hoped to be used as the process for bringing a sample from
Mars to earth. Susan documented the various aspects of the process and the
results of the experiments. She also worked with Dr. Xiaoqi Bao on measuring
the temperature, force, and power measurements for a hammering drill mechanism.
2003
Sherman Tu
and Lauren Wessel testing the USDC drilling basalt.
SURF
Student
Lauren Wessel -- July - Sept 26, 2003
Lauren Wessel is a Mechanical Engineering major at the California Institute of
Technology working with us through the SURF program. For 10 weeks during the
summer of 2003, she worked with Dr. Stewart Sherrit on the Ultrasonic/Sonic
Gopher project. She developed a computer model to study the heat flow in ice
being drilled by the Gopher. She also worked on optimizing the design of the
Gopher by comparing the performance statistics of various free-masses
over a range of excitation frequencies.
Summer Intern
Sherman Hsu-Kuang Tu -- June 16 - Aug. 29, 2003
Sherman Tu is a Electrical Engineering major at
California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo. He worked under the
guidance of Dr. Stewart Sherrit for a period of 9 weeks during the summer of
2003. His task involved producing Solidworks graphics
of a Rover and a Lander for integration with designs of instruments and devices
in future proposals, acquisition of resonance data of piezoelectric samples,
and designing a colpitts oscillator circuit with high
power amplifier for hardware frequency tracking.
2001
Intern Student
Giovanni Pioggia controlling the
android head.
Giovanni
Pioggia -- February 2 - May 7, 2001 Giovanni Pioggia
was an Electronic Engineer from University of Pisa, Italy. He worked at the
NDEAA Laboratory during the last period of his PhD studies. The objective of
his work is to use electroactive polymer
actuators to endow expressivity in an android head. His efforts at the NDEAA
lab involved improvement of the performance of the head as well as developing
new actuators, electronics and control algorithms.
Minority Education Initiatives
Jose Rivera -- May 29, 2001 - July 24, 2001 As
Summer Intern - he was involved with the characterization of electroactive
polymers. Specifically, he conducted measurements of the spectral
characteristics of Ionomeric Polymer-Metal Composites (IPMC).
Tao Stettler -- June 26, 2001 - August 25, 2001
Tao Stettler working on the
ultrasonic/sonic drill.
Tao
Stettler is ALVA student who worked as a Coop at the NDEAA lab. He assisted in conducting
measurements related to the operation of the ultrasonic drill and the
optimization of its operation thru various combinations of on/off time
durations.
2000
Summer Intern
Ana Gjesdal
Ana is
shown working with the ultrasonic/sonic
driller/corer acquiring rock tailings.
Ana
Gjesdal was a senior student at Crescenta Valley High School, CA. She assisted
the NDEAA scientists Dr. Stewart Sherrit and Dr. Ben Dolgin investigating rates
of drilling in rocks of various hardnesses as well as preparing rock tailings
for further analysis.
1999
SURF Student
Stacey
Walker
is Physics major at the University of Texas, Dallas. SURF Student - Her task
has been involved with the investigation of high intensity
ultrasonics in liquid media, the formation of cavitation, heat, and
streaming effects as a function of the ultrasonic frequency. Potential
applications include exploration of such planets as Europa as well as various
medical diagnostics and treatment tools.
Stacey Waller is shown working on high power ultrasonics.
Minority Education Initiatives
Lawrence Cole is an Electrical Engineering student from Florida A&M
University. As Summer Intern - His task has been involved with the development
of a generic electronic circuitry for the drive of electroactive polymers. This
task was done in support of the LoMMAs task to
develop planetary applications for EAP actuators. He worked under the guidance
of Dr. Sean Leary, one the NDEAA Lab scientists
Lawrence Cole is shown working on the EAP drive circuitry.
1998
Minority
Education Initiatives
Lawrence Cole is an Electrical Engineering
student from Florida A&M University. His task has been involved with the
development of surface wiper of solar cells using electroactive polymers. He
worked on the development of an imaging algorithm that allows effective
simultaneous operation of multiple wipers to remove dust from a solar panel
simulating the Nanorover array.
Leon Norris is a Computer Science/Electrical Engineering student from
Morehouse College. His efforts concentrated on the design and development of a
model for a walking robot that is actuated by electroactive polymers. The
polymer will be used to simulate the action of muscles.
Lawrence Cole and Leon Norris shown working under the Guidance of Dr. Sean
Leary.
1997
Minority Education Initiatives
Mr. Munoz, who is an Electrical Engineering
1997 UTEP graduate, worked at the NDEAA lab on establishing foundations of a piezopump concept. Mr. Munoz (right) is shown in the
following figure, at the NDEAA Lab working with the NDEAA scientists Dr. Xiaoqi
Bao (left) and Dr. Tianji Xue (middle).
Ivan
Munoz (right) is shown in the NDEAA Lab working with the scientist Dr. Xiaoqi
Bao (left) and Dr. Tianji Xue (middle).
UCLA
Mechanical
and Aerospace Engineering Dept.
The research
collaboration between the JPL's Advanced Technologies Group and this Department
of UCLA has been mostly with Professor Ajit Mal.
·
Professor Ajit Mal
- Cooperative efforts with Professor Ajit K. Mal have been ongoing since 1987.
The results of this cooperation has been documented in
numerous publications (more than 60) and presented in many national and
international conferences. In 1993, Prof. Mal has been a JPL Summer Faculty
Fellow at the NDE&AA Lab.
The emphasis of the cooperation of Prof. Mal and Dr.
Bar-Cohen has been on ultrasonic NDE of composite materials and adhesive bonded
joints. Particularly, they investigated the leaky Lamb wave (LLW) phenomenon
(pioneered by Dr. Bar-Cohen) analytical modeling, experimental corroboration
and the LLW application to the characterization of flaws and determination of
the elastic properties. One of the former students of Prof. Mal, Dr. Shyh-Shiuh
Lih, became a member of the NDE&AA Team between 1995 to 1997. Dr. Lih
received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from UCLA and worked afterward as a Postdoc
under Prof. Mal's supervision
·
Professor Gregory Carman
- In 1994, a cooperative effort has taken place with Prof. Carman in the area of smart structures and advanced actuators. This
effort started with his appointment as a JPL's Summer Faculty Fellow at the
NDE&AA and afterward in a joint research for the
Pluto Fast Fly-by project (currently called Pluto Express) to develop an
inchworm (Burleigh Instruments) that operates at cryogenic temperatures.
UCLA
- Integrated
Manufacturing Engineering (IME) Dept.
Under the Integrated Manufacturing Engineering Dept.
graduate program, students were offered the opportunity to participate in
on-going research that has relevance to the IME Dept. goals and requirements.
Local research institutes, industry and small companies are offering the
students different subjects of research which need the student interest and the
department approval. Two of the IME student groups participated in such JPL's
NDE&AA research tasks:
·
Low Mass Muscle Actuators
(LoMMAs) - This task is sponsored by the
Telerobotic program under the management of Dr. Charles Weisbin
at JPL and Dave Lavery at NASA HQS. Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen,
is the Principal Investigator and Dr. Tianji Xue is the Co-PI of this task. The
UCLA program manager is Prof.
Tomas Hahn
and the students worked under the supervision of Leonardo
Israeli of the IME Department. The students that were involved with this task
are:
1. Brian
Lucky
2. Cinkiat Abidin
3. Marlene
Turner
4. Harry
Mashhoudy
Figure Caption: The LoMMAs UCLA
IME team at the JPL's NDE & AA Lab: From left to right, Dr. Tianji Xue,
Marlene Turner, Harry Mashhoudy, Brian Lucky, Cinkiat Abidin and Dr. Y. Bar-Cohen
Real-Time NDE of Composite Materials Using Leaky
Lamb Waves (LLW) - This task is sponsored by the
University of Texas, El Paso, under a contract from AFOSR. The students
developed a system that acquires LLW dispersion data in real-time and
integrated it with the JPL's LLW data processing and inversion software. The students
that were involved with this task are:
1.
Sue Kersey
2.
Cedric Daksla
3.
Anatoly Blanovsky
IME team at the JPL's NDEAA Lab: From left
to right, Leonardo Israeli, Sue Kersey, Cedric Daksla and Dr. Y. Bar-Cohen.
Materials Science Dept.
Recently, cooperative effort has been initiatived
with Prof. Qibing Pei in the area of Electroactive Polymers.
University of Texas,
El Paso (UTEP)
FAST Center
This collaboration has been initiated in 1994 and the key
individuals that are involved include Dr. Roberto Osegueda (Director of FAST
Center) and Dr. Soheil Nazarian (NDE expert). This effort is in under a
contract from AFOSR and the emphasis is on NDE of composite materials using
plate waves. Further, efforts are underway to develop laser ultrasonics
technology as well as to organize a Workshop on the subject
of Intelligent NDE.
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)
Through the Work & Study program of Caltech,
undergraduate students are working part time (no more than 20-hours a week) at
the NDE&AA lab. Since 1993, four students worked at the lab and
participated in different tasks and experiments including the development of
software for the LLW data acquisition and the modeling of ultrasonic motors.
Since 1992, efforts are being explored to formalize a technical collaboration
in the area of NDE with Prof. G. Ravichandran and in the area of actuation
technology with Prof. Wilfred Iwan.
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT)
Ultrasonic motors are being modeled theoretically and the
results are corroborated experimentally. This joint effort started in 1995 and
the MIT principal investigator is Professor Nesbitt Hagood. Between 1995 and
1997, this effort was funded by the NASA Telerobotics program, under the
Planetary Dexterous Manipulators Task which was managed by Dr. Paul Schenker,
JPL. The JPL Principal Investigator for the ultrasonic motor development was
Dr. Y. Bar-Cohen.
;
Related Homepages
NDEAA Technologies Lab Webhub
Advanced Actuators
- Ultrasonic motors
Advanced Actuators
- Electroactive polymers
Ultrasonic/Sonic
Driller/Corer (USDC)