Research

This is the big one. Either I pull this off and wow everyone, or I go out in one hell of a flaming big bang. Count on the former. As the project progresses, I'll put up more information. For now, I'll just describe it briefly: the project will demonstrate a robotics technology that can be used to construct robotic arms or bodies that have no rigid parts and are flexible about any axis at any point along their length. In addition, robotic parts based this design could change their diameter at various locations in order to suit the application. The device involves materials, mechanical, electronic, and programming challenges to complete construction and control. Control will most likely have to be neural network implemented in software. Applications include medical (endoscopes that can more effectively navigate within the patient's body) and many industrial uses.

• Diagnostics for Electron-Cyclotron Resonance SiO2 Deposition Plasmas.
  This was a pair of projects I conducted this summer at the ERC for Plasma-Aided Manufacturing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. My microwave interferometry results will be published in the next few months.
• Using the lux gene as a reporter to examine the effects of ultrasound on E. coli bacteria.
  This is an independant research collaboration between Swarthmore professors Amy Cheng Vollmer (Biology) and E. Carr Everbach (Engineering) that has employed several students. I performed a chunk of the research and some of the equipment design.
• Robot Wars
  This is a bit silly, but fun... A number of the young, lusty men and women of the Swarthmore College IEEE chapter are planning on entering the 1997 Robot Wars competition, wherin remote-controlled and autonomous robots duel to the death in a vicious melee...

Since nearly every science and engineering course involves a research project, I have research and/or design experience in a large number of fields. The coolest of these are listed below.

• Ablation of the posterior lateral line primordia results in decreased neuromast generation in zebrafish embryos
  For my seminar in Developmental Neurobiology, Sarah Wise '96 and I examined the effect of the removal of this particular group of cells on the development of the lateral line sensory system of Brachydanio rerio. Probably the most ludicrously difficult of the projects I've tried to do for any class.
• Examination of the Magnetorheological Properties of Commercial Ferrofluids
  I was intrigued when I read about Ferrofluids in Scientific American a few years ago. So when my materials science class came along, I decided to do my research into the bizarre property these liquids have of increasing their viscosity in the presence of a magnetic field.
• Examination of adaptability to axial loading conditions of Helianthus annuus
  My goal was to see if trees would exhibit phenotypic plasticity in response to axial mechanical loading; theoretically, future tree farms could produce stronger wood (and faster growth) through a combination of environmental and genetic manipulations, thus producting a superior product and sparing forests. Unfortunately, the time scope of the course limited me to a faster growing plant: the sunflower.
• Application of Neural Network Algorithms to Graphical Edge Detection
  This was my final project for Engineering 21: Computer Graphics
  . I implemented the algorithm described by my neuroscience textbook; it worked beautifully. Follow the link (when available) to see the cool pictures that resulted...

Some of the projects are I've done for class don't really qualify as full-scale research, but were instructive and/or amusing nonetheless.

• Neural Network Control of a Simple Mechanical System
  For my control theory class, I took a simple servo/flywheel/tachometer system that we'd used to demonstrate discrete feedback loops and wrote a couple of very simple neural nets and a stochastic training algorithm, plugged it in in the basement of Engineering Hall, and let it train itself overnight. It was a lot smarter than I expected...