In June, the URI President Carothers’ Partnership Program announced the establishment of three new partnerships at the University of Rhode Island: the Partnership in Food, Hunger and Nutrition; the 3D Group for Interactive Visualization; and the Partnership for Ocean Instrumentation.

The Partnership Program began in 1995, when the URI Faculty Senate approved a plan to support multidisciplinary research-educational partnerships.  The goal of these partnerships is to encourage multidisciplinary research that emphasizes student research and outreach to the non-academic community. 

 To date, eleven have been funded at the University.  Engineering plays an important part in a number of them, including the newly formed Partnership in Ocean Instrumentation; the Sensors and Surface Technology Partnership; and the 3D Group for Interactive Visualization. Following is a brief look at these partnerships.

Partnership for Ocean Instrumentation (POI)

The POI is aimed at developing advanced ocean instrumentation and providing an innovative internship experience for students.  Robert Tyce of ocean engineering and John King, from the graduate school of oceanography, are the codirectors of this partnership.

Tyce was appointed codirector upon his return from Italy last summer, where he worked for NATO as head of Military Oceanography and Rapid Environmental Assessment at SACLANT Undersea Research Center.  Tyce said,  “The POI is a Rhode Island effort to involve students in developing new instruments related to the ocean. We have been discussing several ways for various departments to work together. Deans Nassersharif and Farmer and Associate Deans Gregory and Farrell have shown great enthusiasm in the formation of the partnership. NSF is presently looking at significant investments in the area of ocean instrumentation. We are also expecting support from industry, government and the university. With guidance from a multidisciplinary faculty, industrial partners and international advisors, we expect to develop new instrumentation for ocean scientists and engineers using student interns.”

By integrating efforts with URI research projects, POI expects to produce prototypes of new instruments of sufficient interest to agencies and industry to result in outside funding for the next cycle of development, involving both URI scientists and student interns.  Tyce said, “One challenging aspect of the partnership is to help engineers and oceanographers understand each others’ objectives. Oceanographers generally build instruments for the resulting measurements whereas engineers tend to focus on the instrument design process and subsequent production. The partnership is expected to consist of teams of scientists, engineers and students working together on development and application of new instruments.”

The partnership expects that one of the outcomes will be the vigorous pursuit of external education and research funding to support continuation of the partnership. According to Tyce, “We want to inculcate interest in high school students by offering summer courses in the field of robotics and instrumentation. We want to organize an internationally recognized summer institute in ocean instrumentation that offers income-producing professional development and URI courses taught for credit by URI as well as by invited international experts.”

Sensors and Surface Technology

The Sensors and Surface Technology Partnership (SSTP) started in 1996 and currently consists of eighteen faculty members from several engineering departments, physics, chemistry, oceanography and textiles.  The SSTP’s primary focus areas include chemical sensors, physical sensors, optical sensors, nanofabrication, microchannels, microstructural engineering, and specialty coatings for fibers, corrosion resistance and antifouling.

 Dr. Otto Gregory, one of the co-directors of the SSTP, said, “ We tend to focus on basic science and applied sensor technology. The research area covers the full gamut of physics, chemistry and sensor devices.”

Physical sensors for strain, temperature, and pressure measurement; chemical sensors for humidity, carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide; and biological sensors for food pathogens are just a few examples of the sensor technologies being developed by SSTP investigators. The applications for these sensors are numerous.  In one type of sensor, pathogen contamination in seafood can be detected at much lower levels than can be achieved with other types of sensors. Cost-effective temperature and humidity sensors are also being developed within the SSTP, as well as optical sensors to measure the cumulative strain in structural components for damage assessment, and bio-fouling sensors for remote ocean   measurements.

One of the research efforts supported by the SSTP is to develop an inexpensive yet sensitive infrared sensor to be used in imaging applications. This research has resulted in collaboration with Teltron Technologies, Inc., and Video Display Corp. 

The benefits of the partnership extend beyond the technology. Since its inception seven years ago, the SSTP has trained a large number of students, enabling them to work in a team environment and providing opportunities to present their work at SSTP poster and seminar sessions.

According to Dr. Gregory, “The projects enable undergraduates to work in multidisciplinary teams, imparting a meaningful research experience for undergraduates and helping them move much closer to the real world. For faculty members, the partnership provides an opportunity to cross-pollinate their ideas, hone their grant writing skills, and foster stronger ties to the NSF, Department of Energy and Department of Defense. Another significant benefit is that their work is getting patented and licensed.”

Dr. Gregory added, “Our ultimate goal is to have our work result in everyday products that stand to benefit everyone.”

The 3D Group

The 3D Group is involved in the research, development, teaching and cross-disciplinary utilization of three-dimensional modeling, animation and interactivity. Like the other partnerships, the 3D Group is composed of a team of faculty, and undergraduate and graduate students. The core group of faculty and students come from computer science and art disciplines, but because these disciplines provide visual information, the group brings valuable conceptual information to a wide range of current URI research projects.

A member of the team, computer engineering student Elizete Fernandes, finds the experience stimulating. Fernandes is helping to develop a computerized approach to simulate pedestrian behavior in non-emergency evacuation and non-emergency scenarios. Fernandes likes working in a team. “I’m learning how to go about organizing a big project, where to start, and how to work in groups. It’s exciting,” she said.

Clift Manzanillo, who studies computer science, is another member of the 3-D group, and is working on a project to reconstruct and visualize a rat’s brain to show target proteins that locate cells affected by lead poisoning. The young computer scientist speaks of his work with the enthusiasm of someone who just won the lottery. “I enjoy the team environment,” said the senior, who hopes to focus on computer graphics at graduate school at URI.

Another current interdisciplinary project is an in-depth view of knee mechanics to show maximum joint stress that the knee experiences. This information has the potential to aid physical therapists, among others.

“The partnership is really a win-win situation for everyone,” said Jean-Yves Hervé, professor of computer science and one of the directors of the partnership.