inside cit winter 09 10

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stimates project that within the next

fve years, the U.. must invest 2.2

trillion ollars into its inrastructure to

keep it sae an efcient. In act, the

American ociety o Civil ngineers’

2009 Report Car or America gives

the nation’s inrastructure a cumula-

tive grae o d. The ilapiate stateo our inrastructure begs many ques-

tions, or example: What technologies

an approaches or improvement

woul provie the best use o our

time an money? This quanary an

relate matters were the ocus o a

panel iscussion, title “mart Tech-

nologies,” that was hel at Carnegie

Mellon on eptember 9, 2009.

James H. Garrett Jr., co-irector

o the Center or ense Critical

Inrastructure Research an hea o

Civil an nvironmental ngineering

moerate the panel, which inclue:Jurij Paraszczak, irector o merging

Business Research an marter

Planet Initiative, IBM; Benson Gabler,

Corporate ustainability Manager, the

PC Financial ervices Group; Guy

Costa, ormer Public Works irector,

City o Pittsburgh; Piervincenzo

Rizzo, proessor o Civil ngineering,

University o Pittsburgh; an Carnegie

Mellon’s Burcu Akinci, proessor oCivil an nvironmental ngineering.

"By bringing together experts

rom acaemic, inustry an govern-

ment, we were able to call attention

to important issues relate to our

inrastructure, such as the nee or

more cost-eective ways to monitor,

sustainably maintain an operate

our aging inrastructure, an raise

awareness o new technologies an

approaches that can help us aress

these issues,” says Garrett.

during the 90-minute iscourse,

panel members oere perspectives

on a range o topics, incluing:

• the nee or cyber-physical

systems in inrastructure;• the application o leaing-ege

technologies in ol, urban inra-

structures;

• how companies can aopt new

technologies an policies to make

themselves greener; an

• the use o sensors to gather ata

that leas to more efcient use

o resources an smart business

ecisions.

E x p E r t s D i s c u s s H o w N E w t E c H N o l o g i E s c a N i m p r o v E N a t i o N ’ s i N f r a s t r u c t u r E

James H. Garrett

Co-director, Center for Sensed

Critical Infrastructure Research

Head, Civil and Environmental

Engineering



m a k i N g o u r p r E s E N c E k N o w N :

t H E w a s H i N g t o N s p E a k E r s E r i E s

Bringing business, government an

research leaers together to explore

issues resiing at the intersection

o policy, technology an innova-

tion – this is the purpose o Carnegie

Mellon University’s Washingtonpeaker eries.

ponsore by the College o

ngineering, the peaker eries,

which is hel in Washington, d.C., is

a public orum that enables experts to

talk about important issues that align

with the College’s research thrusts

– like innovation, cybersecurity an

energy. ince the event’s inception in

2008, hunres o alumni, corporate

an government fgures have atten-

e the biannual panel iscussions

that take place at the Cosmos Club.

The most recent gathering, whichwas hel on eptember 10, was title

“Inspiring Innovation: Reinventing

the Theory, Practice an Policy o

Transormational Change.” dean

Praeep Khosla moerate the panel

which consiste o Robert Atkinson,

ouner an presient o Inormation

Technology an Innovation Founa-

tion; rica Fuchs, assistant proessor

o ngineering an Public Policy, Carn-

egie Mellon; Robert Garner, ouner

o ew Worl Technology Partners;gils Milbergs, executive irector o

Washington conomic development

Commission; an Congressman davi

Wu, chairman o the House Com-

mittee on cience an Technology’s

ubcommittee on Technology an

Innovation. Jack Golman, the creator

o Xerox PARC an ormer Carnegie

Mellon proessor o physics, was the

guest speaker.

“The Washington peaker e-

ries helps to create new relationships,

strengthen existing ones an provie

interesting proessional experiencesor our aculty an alumni. The series

also keeps the public aware o the

College’s leaing-ege research,”

says haron Grant, the College’s

senior irector o external relations.

“By listening or asking the panel

questions, people walk away more

inorme, more sensitize to the

pressing issues at han,” explains

Grant.

In aition to proviing valu-

able networking opportunities, thepeaker eries raises Carnegie

Mellon’s profle in Washington. This

is achieve in part by the caliber o

the panel members. “We seek people

who are more than technical experts.

We want people on these panels who

are actively engage in an issue an

can make things happen. They are

inuential an have a respecte track

recor,” says Grant.

The iscourse that takes place

is “open, robust an prouctive,” she

says. he arranges an interesting mix

o panel members who at times varywiely in their opinions. The goal o

the series is not to oster controversy

but instea to bring ierent perspec-

tives to the table. Panel members are

selecte base on their eication to

fning solutions to ifcult problems

an not their political persuasions.

By presenting alternative views,

problems can be approache rom

ierent angles.

“In d.C., I have seen so many

issues that are inorme an shape

by the research that the College is

working on. What we work on is ovital interest to all. An I think people

turn to institutions like the College

o ngineering or solutions to tough

problems because we look at issues

in a comprehensive ashion. A great

example o this is our ngineering

an Public Policy department, where

we have a meling o policy an

technology,” says Grant, aing, “We

contribute to soun public policy.”

To join us for future events, visit

our Web site at www.cit.cmu.edu

and search for Washington Speaker Series. For additional information,

contact Sharon Grant, Senior Director

of External Relations at 202-478-7842

or [email protected].

Sharon Grant



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Newsmaker

m c g a u g H E y E a r N s a i r f o r c E g r a N t

Alan J. H. McGaughey, an assistant professor in Mechanical Engineering, received a grant

from the Air Force’s Young Investigator Research Program (YIP).

McGaughey was one of 38 engineers and scientists, selected from a pool of 202

applicants, who are to receive a total of $14.6 million in grants over a 3- to 5-year period.

YIP grants are awarded to researchers who have received their Ph.D. within the last ve

years and demonstrate exceptional ability and promise in their work.

For his award-winning project, McGaughey will investigate how quantum mechanics

can be used to predict the thermal conductivity of nanostructures. “I want to look at thetools used in physics, materials science and chemistry and apply them to solve engineer-

ing problems,” he says.

He explains that when new materials are created in the lab, it is often a trial-and-

error process. McGaughey’s goal is to reduce the guesswork and use theory and simula-

tions to develop nanomaterials with tailored heat transfer properties. He is concentrating

on superlattices, which are made of two semiconductor materials that are alternately

“layered like a cake.” Depending on their design, superlattices may be good conductors

of heat or be insulators. “We want to use nanomaterials and make them behave differ-

ently than what you’d expect,” say McGaughey. This research could have applications

for thermal management in light-emitting diodes and lasers and in thermoelectric energy

conversion, where waste heat can be used to generate electricity.

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N E w f a c u l t y m E m b E r f o c u s E s o No p t i m i z i N g E N E r g y N E t w o r k s

“Power systems

are probably the

biggest systems we

have an that’s why

it is important to

coorinate control

o these systems,”

says Gabriela

Hug, an assistant

proessor in C. Hug, who is rom

witzerlan, teaches a special course

or grauate stuents calle Optimiza-tion in nergy etworks, which is a

topic o vital public concern, perhaps

more so than most people realize.

Power systems are constructe

in a manner that allows ierent

entities responsibility or various

parts o the system. “I you want to

optimize the system, you have to get

the entities to coorinate, an oten

they aren’t willing to exchange ata,”

says Hug. Further, i a Pennsylvania

utility company oes something in

its system, say increase or ecrease

a loa, it will inuence neighboring

systems in Ohio or Virginia. Hug is

using optimization theory to ormulate

hypothetical problems or each entity

an solutions that beneft all involve

parties.

The ability to coorinate an

control ierent parts o the powergri is important with regars to

istribute generation an renewable

orms o energy. “Win generators

an solar cells are connecte all over

the power gri an this is ifcult to

coorinate,” says Hug. A ormiable

problem is that energy can only be

store to a limite egree, an win

generation is intermittent. “You nee

environmentally unrienly backup

i the win is not blowing. You on’t

want the system to go own.” Like an

orchestra, renewables an traition-

ally generate electricity must work

in sync an this comes about through

expert coorination.

Hug says that her research

elves into “two levels o coorina-

tion. You have coorination between

large power systems an then within

these systems you have to coorinate

equipment.” he explains there

are limitations as to what systems

can hanle. I a piece o equipmentalters, causing a line to overloa an

ail, the power will ow elsewhere

an overloa another line. This pat-

tern continues, creating a cascaing

power ailure.

Another area that Hug’s

research coul impact is the evelop-

ing concept o eman control. “This

means that the prices you pay or

electricity or your home will vary at

ierent times o the ay,” she says.

For example, consumers may run their

washing machines at night because it

woul be cheaper an woul reuce

the peak loa on the system uring

the ay. (Miay is when the most

electricity is use.) Again, coorinat-

ing the amount o power in the gri at

specifc times is a key task.

Because Hug’s work involves

very large systems, her research is

being teste via simulations. “This

is one o the most ifcult things in

power systems research. You can’t justtry something out. Utility companies

are arai that their systems woul

go own i something went wrong,”

she says. Yet Hug is confent her

work will come to light. Government

regulation is orcing change in the

power inustry an “ol equipment

an blackouts make utility companies

more receptive to testing new ieas.”

I I d C I T

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