WEEKLY MEMO, April 21, 2008 **************** 1. Announcements **************** 1.1: Additional landscaping work will be taking place around the BNC to repair several problems with the existing landscape. These should have a minimal affect on the building, but at times may have sidewalks temporarily closed. Additionally, there will be some noise- and vibration-creating activities where concrete must be cut and removed. This work will take place between May 1 and June 19, 2008. Major vibration-creating activities are planned for mornings during the week of May 5. Please contact John Weaver jrweaver@purdue.edu if this timing is problematic. 2.1: Bindley 233 autoclave training scheduled: Friday, April 25, 1:00PM. Sign up at http://www.itap.purdue.edu/training/registration/?offeringid=2716 <http://www.itap.purdue.edu/training/registration/?offeringid=2716> . Anyone interested in this training may contact Christy Cooper (clcooper@purdue.edu; 43403). ******************** 2. TOURS/VISITORS ******************** 2.1: Tuesday, 04.22.08: RCHE Annual Conference activities 2.2: Tuesday, 04.22.08, 2:45: Happy Hollow Elementary School¹s Nanoscience Club 2.3: Thursday, 04.24.08, 10:15: Jinsong Zhao, Tsinghua University 2.4: Thursday, 04.24.08, 4:00: Placido Navas, and staff with Foods & Nutrition Department, Purdue ******************** 3. SEMINARS ******************** 3.1: Monday, April 21, 2008, 3:30PM, MSEE 239: ³Networking via Message-Passing,² by Sujay Sanghavi. ABSTRACT: How to achieve global results via local action? This, in essence, is the underlying challenge in many problems in modern information systems. Belief Propagation (BP) has enjoyed tremendous empirical success in broadly addressing this challenge, in a diverse array of applications: image processing, decoding of channel codes, machine learning, statistical physics etc. However, BP is a heuristic; the lack of precise guarantees on its performance stands in stark contrast to its empirical success. In this talk we expand the analytical understanding of BP, and widen its applicability, by investigating its performance in a new domain: networking. We first motivate how the fundamental structure of many networking problems makes BP a natural fit for these problems, by focusing on three specific applications: wireless scheduling, sensor network self-organization, and resource allocation. We highlight its algorithmic simplicity, and demonstrate its empirical performance. We then show that the setting of networking problems allows for a deeper insight into BP itself. At the core of our networking applications lie canonical combinatorial problems: weighted matching and independent set. Our analysis reveals that, for these problems, BP is precisely a fast distributed implementation of linear programming. This insight has the potential to foster even better algorithms for the large spectrum of applications that BP is already applied to. We also demonstrate the first use of BP as a proof technique, using our analysis to establish fundamental structural properties of random instances· of weighted independent set problems. In conclusion, we comment on the potential of BP as a generic framework for distributed algorithms, on adapting it for new applications, and on the need for a richer exchange of ideas between the fields of communications and statistical learning and inference. BIO: Sujay Sanghavi received his B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from liT Bombay, after which he joined the University of lIIinois, Urbana-Champaign. There he received an MS in Mathematics, and an MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering. Sujay's graduate research focused on communication networks, under the advice of Bruce Hajek. After graduating, Sujay jolned MIT as a postdoc ln Alan WHIsky's group. where he works on large-scale statistical inference and machine learning, and on their interactions with networking and communications. Sujay's primary research interest is the development and analysis of large-scale distributed algorithms for modern information systems. using tools from probability, optimization and combinatorics. He was a recipient of the Perry award in 2002, and the Mavis award in 2005, while at UIUC. 3.2: Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 1:00PM, BRK 2001: ³Nanoscale Characterization of Nanoelectromechanical and Biological Systems,² by Dr. Changhong Ke. ABSTRACT: Nanotechnology is impacting many fields including the electronics industry and life sciences. Novel nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) are being investigated for next generation electronics and sensors with superior performance. Nanoscale instrumentation offers unprecedented capacities to characterize complex biological systems with ultrahigh sensitivities. In the first part of my talk, I will briefly review recent advances in NEMS and present the development of a novel carbon nanotube-based bistable nanoswitch for applications of memory elements and sensors. The unique electromechanical behaviors of this device are demonstrated by multi-physics modeling and in-situ SEM testing. Failure modes of the device captured by our in-situ measurements will be discussed. In the second part of my talk, I will present my recent work studying the elasticity and conformation of single stranded adenine-based DNA and RNA molecules by single molecule atomic force spectroscopy. I will focus on discussing direct measurements of the mechanical strength of base-stacking interactions among adenines and the elasticity of solvent driven molecular conformations. BIO: Dr. Changhong Ke is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Dr. Ke received his BS and MS from Beijing Institute of Technology (Beijing, China) in 1997 and 2000, respectively. He obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University in 2006. His PhD dissertation focused on the development of a carbon nanotube-based bistable nanoswitch for applications of memory elements and sensors. After finishing his PhD, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University, where he conducted research on the topics of measuring DNA/RNA elasticity using AFM-based single molecule force spectroscopy and detecting radiation induced DNA damage at the single molecule level by AFM imaging and pulling measurements. Dr. Ke is a member of ASME and BPS. 3.3: Wednesday, April 23, 2008, 2:30PM, EE 317: ³Nonvolatile Flash Memory: An Overview,² by Souvik Mahapatra. ABSTRACT: In this talk, we will review the memory program and erase operation of floating gate flash cells under both NAND and NOR architecture. The reliability issues, such as cycling endurance, retention and array disturbs will be reviewed next. Finally, the floating gate cell scaling challenges will be discussed, and flash memories having newer charge storage node (nitride, metal nanocrystals) will be reviewed. BIO: Souvik Mahapatra received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay, India in 1999. He was with Bell Laboratories, Lucent technologies, Murray Hill, NJ, USA during 2000-01. Since 2002 he is with the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay, India, and presently holds the post of Associate Professor. His research interests are CMOS device and Flash memory scaling and reliability. He has published more than 75 papers in international journals and conferences, delivered invited talks in major international conferences including the IEDM, and was a tutorial speaker at IRPS. He is a senior member of IEEE. 3.4a: Thursday, April 24, 2008, 10:00AM, YONG 755: ³Roundtable with Prince Cedza Dlamini²; learn about Prince Dlamini¹s ideas on Service Learning and opportunities for Purdue faculty. 3.4b: Thursday, April 24, 2008, 4:00PM, STEW 306: ³Formal Presentation: Service Learning experiences in South Africa and Swaziland.² Prince Cedza Dlamini, grandson of Nelson Mandela, is visiting campus to promote our faculty and students engaging in Service Learning experiences in South Africa and Swaziland. Prince Cedza has founded a non-profit organization to promote and support exchanges between our two countries and is focusing on several institutes of higher learning in Indiana, including Purdue. Actually, many South African and Swaziland students attend Indiana State University, though Purdue has a few attending here, too. 3.5: Thursday, April 24, 2008, 10:30AM refreshments; 11:00AM seminar, MRRGN 121: ³Population Balance Models and Distribution Control,² by Dr. Charles D. Immanuel. ABSTRACT: Several particulate processes such as emulsion polymerization and granulation are characterized by a distributed population, the control of which constitutes a means of inferential control of product quality. For example, the control of particle size distribution of emulsion polymers constitutes an inferential means to control the rheology and optical properties of the polymers. The research challenges underlying distribution control are the multi-scale nature of the processes and limitations in both on-line measurements and manipulations. Optimal distribution control can be achieved through use of population balance models that account for the underlying particle rate processes including nucleation, growth, aggregation and breakage. It is seen in our studies that the multi-scale control problem is facilitated indeed through an explicit consideration of the hierarchical nature of the process mechanisms in the controller formulations. In this talk, issues and methodologies for model development, numerical solution and controller formulation will be discussed, with applications to polymerization and granulation processes. BIO: Dr. Immanuel is a lecturer in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London. He has been in Imperial College since August 2003, after a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware and a post-doctoral tenure at the University of California Santa Barbara. He has a Masters in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, and Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Anna University, India. His research interests are in multi-dimensional and multi-scale population balance models, model-based applied process control, and polymerization processes. He is a committee member of the computer-aided process engineering division of the Institute of Chemical Engineers in UK, and a voting member of the working party on polymer reaction engineering of the European Federation of Chemical Engineering. 3.6: Thursday, April 24, 2008, 3:00, MRGN 121: ³Exploiting Parametric Effects in Resonant Micro/Nanosystems,² by Jeffrey F. Rhoads. ABSTRACT: Parametric excitations arise naturally in a variety of resonant micro/nanosystems. While these excitations can render a number of beneficial system characteristics, including nearly-ideal stopband rejection and a lowered dependence on damping, full utilization of their potential requires that the resonant devices be highly tunable, in both a linear and nonlinear manner. This presentation will consider the modeling, analysis, and experimental characterization of a representative nonlinear, parametrically-excited, electrostatically-actuated microresonator. Experimentally-verified tunings used to acquire desired nonlinear system behaviors will be described and micro/nanoscale applications with distinct promise, including frequency-selective switching and resonant mass sensing, will be outlined. Ongoing research related to micro- and nanomechanical parametric amplifiers operating in both linear and nonlinear frequency response regimes will also be briefly discussed. BIO: Jeffrey F. Rhoads is an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and is a member of the Birck Nanotechnology Center and Ray W. Herrick Laboratories at the same institution. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees, each in mechanical engineering, from Michigan State University in 2002, 2004, and 2007, respectively. Dr. Rhoads' current research interests include the modeling, analysis, predictive design, and characterization of resonant micro/nanoelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) for use in chemical and biological sensing, RF signal filtering, and inertial sensing systems, the behavior of nonlinear, parametrically-excited systems and coupled oscillators, and the behavior of mechanical and electromechanical parametric amplifiers. Dr. Rhoads is a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). 3.7: Friday, April 25, 2008, 3:30 refreshments, 3:45 Seminar, ARMS 1010: ³High-aspect-ration Micromachining of Titaniun: Enabling new functionality and opportunity in micromechanical systems through greater materials selection,² by Masa P. Rao. ABSTRACT: Traditionally, materials selection has been limited in high-aspect-ratio micromechanical applications, due primarily to the predominance of microfabrication processes and infrastructure dedicated to silicon. While silicon has proven to be an excellent material for many of these applications, no one material can meet the needs of all applications. This is especially evident in biomedical microdevice applications, where the intrinsic brittleness of silicon limits its utility, thus illustrating the need for development of viable alternatives. Titanium is particularly promising in this regard, due to its toughness, biocompatibility, and fatigue resistance. However, lack of sufficient fabrication capability has limited its use in micromechanical systems thus far. Recently, we reported the development of novel micromachining processes that now enable realization of this promise. These processes, based on plasma etching techniques derived from microelectronics manufacturing, provide for the first time, the capability for fabrication of complex, micrometer-scale, high-aspect-ratio structures in titanium. As such, these processes extend the state of the art in titanium micromachining and do so in a manner that is inherently scalable to low-cost/high-volume manufacturing. The focus of this talk will be to detail these processes, their capabilities, and their use in the fabrication of micromechanical devices for biomedical applications. BIO: Prof. Rao received his bachelors in Material Science and Engineering from the University of Florida and his Ph.D. in Materials Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Following graduation, he accepted a position as a post-doctoral researcher in the Mechanical Engineering Department at UCSB, where he was involved in the initial development of plasma-based micromachining of titanium. He joined the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University as an Assistant Professor in January 2007. Prof. Rao¹s current research interests lie in the continued development of titanium micromachining and its application towards biomedical microdevices, as well as the development of other novel microfabrication technologies for various applications. He has authored/co-authored over 20 journal articles and conference proceedings, and has presented lectures in fields ranging from ceramic composites for gas turbine applications to MicroElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS) for telecommunications and biomedical applications. **************** 4. OPPORTUNITIES **************** 4.1: The Nanomanufacturing Sciences area of the SRC Global Research Collaboration is soliciting white papers in Environment, Safety & Health for work to begin April 1, 2009 as a part of an ESH Research Center based at the University of Arizona. Four-page white papers addressing needs in a new research needs document are due Thursday, May 15, 2008 by 3:00 p.m. ET. This call for research, issued to universities worldwide, may be addressed by individual investigators or by research teams. Successful white paper authors will be invited to submit a full proposal. Contracts resulting from this solicitation are anticipated to be three years in duration. Interested researchers should note the proposal and review schedule, needs document and instructions for web-based white paper submissions on the SRC GRC Web site at: http://grc.src.org/fr/S200806_call.asp <http://grc.src.org/fr/S200806_call.asp> 4.2: Summer internship for a graduate student (MS or PhD candidates) in Bangalore, India: An internship is available (all local expenses covered + $3,500) to conduct research with the National Center for Biological Sciences, India (http://www.ncbs.res.in/ <http://www.ncbs.res.in/> ). NCBS is a sister institution of Tata Institutional of Fundamental Research, Mumbai (http://www.tifr.res.in/). Research activities are listed at http://www.ncbs.res.in/researchncbs/groups.htm <http://www.ncbs.res.in/researchncbs/groups.htm> . Please contact Pankaj Sharma (sharma@purdue.edu) with your interest and be sure to include your resume. 4.3: The National Science Foundation has released a new solicitation for the International Materials Institutes (IMI) program, which promotes ³fundamental materials research by coordinating international research and education projects involving condensed matter and materials physics, solid state and materials chemistry, polymers, metals, ceramics, electronic materials, biomaterials and, in general, the design, synthesis, and characterization of and phenomena in materials to meet global and regional needs. The Institutes must be university-based and provide a research environment that will attract leading scientists and engineers. The Institutes' long term goal is the creation of a worldwide network in materials research and the development of a generation of scientists and engineers with enhanced international leadership capabilities. A critically important aspect of an IMI is its potential impact on advancing materials research on an international scale and developing an internationally competitive generation of materials researchers, and this distinguishes an IMI from other materials research centers that NSF supports.² The request for proposals is available at http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08558/nsf08558.htm <http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08558/nsf08558.htm> . For this competition, Purdue may submit one proposal. Internal deadlines are as follows: Monday, May 12: Letters of Intent due to the OVPR; Monday, June 9: Preproposals due to the OVPR; Thursday, June 12: Preproposal rankings due to the OVPR; Agency deadline: Tuesday, July 15. Please note: Letters of intent, preproposals, and rankings to the OVPR should be e-mailed to OVPRlimited@purdue.edu. Purdue's limited submission policy and template for letters of intent may be found at http://dagon.admin.purdue.edu/cgi-bin/lsid.cgi <http://dagon.admin.purdue.edu/cgi-bin/lsid.cgi> . Those submitting for the Resources Center component should so indicate on the letter of intent. For any case in which the number of internal letters of intent received is no more than the number of proposals allowed by the sponsor, the OVPR will notify the PI that an internal preproposal will be unnecessary. ********* 5. KUDOS ********* 5.1: Birck Nanotechnology Center¹s 2008 Annual Research Review presented the first POSTER AWARD to STUART WILLIAMS, ALOKE KUMAR, and STEVE WERELEY for their poster, "Rapid electrokinetic patterning of colloidal particles with optical landscapes." The award of $300 (plus a gross-up to cover taxes) will be split equally among the authors of this winning poster. 5.2: Congratulations go to VIKKI FAST on her new position with the Birck Nanotechnology Business Office. Vikki will be assuming the responsibilities of Monthly Payroll and Account Management. She will begin the transition into her new position on Monday April 21st. She will continue to work on tasks related to her current position until it has been filled.