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2004-2005 Speaker Series
Mr. John Beaumont Penn State Behrend
Melt-flipper Technology & Faculty Entrepreneurship
September 16, 2004, 12:00 - 1:00 in Reed 114
In 1997 John Beaumont, a faculty member at Penn State Behrend, patented what is now marketed as MeltFlipper technology. Currently John has licensed this technology in well over one thousand plastics injections molds throughout North and South American as well as Europe and Asia . This talk will present an overview of his technology as well as the process and challenges undertaken to develop his patent and business. The presentation will include discussion of issues such as:
- who pays for your patent
- what assistance and roadblocks exist at Penn State
- the challenges vs. rewards
- how one maintains a faculty position while operating a full-time business.
Dr. John Roth Penn State Behrend
Understanding Tool Wear and Extending Tool Life to Reduce Production Costs in Manufacturing
October 21, 2004, 12:00 - 1:00 in Reed 114
For manufacturing based industries, tooling costs frequently play an important role in determining the competitiveness of the company's bids or products. These costs also significantly influence the company's quarterly profits. Therefore, it is highly important to reduce these costs as much as possible. To address this situation, research is being conducted at Penn State Behrend which is focused on understanding and influencing the tool wear phenomenon. This research focuses on developing techniques for monitoring the condition of tooling and also exploring ways to extend tool life. Several projects are currently being pursued towards this end:
- Developing Directional and Sensor Independent Techniques for Monitoring Tool Wear
- Identifying the Influence of Tool Geometry on the Tool Wear Mechanism
- Extending Tool Life using Cryogenic Treatments
- Electrical Effects on Cutting Forces and Tool Wear
Dr. Lukas Sekanina
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Solvable Hardware and Evolvable Computing
November 18, 2004, 12:00 - 1:00 in Reed 114
Dr. Sekanina received all his degrees from Brno University of Technology, Czech Rep. Currently he is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology. He was a visiting lecturer with Pennsylvania State University and a visiting researcher with Department of Informatics, University of Oslo , Norway in 2001. He is the author of the monograph Evolvable Components (Springer Verlag, 2003) and (co)author of more than 30 refereed conference/journal papers mainly on evolvable hardware. He serves as program/organizing committee member of several international conferences. Lukas Sekanina was awarded with a number of awards at the national as well as international level, including the Best Paper/Presentation Award at IEEE DDECS'02 and ICES'03 conferences, the Merit Award at the GECCO Human competitive result competition 2004, Siemens Award for outstanding MSc thesis (1999) and PhD thesis (2003) and Josef Hlavka Award for research (2003). His research interests focus on theory, design and hardware implementations of bio-inspired computational systems. He popularizes that research in TV and other media. During fall semester 2004 Lukas Sekanina is a Fulbright scholar conducting research with NASA JPL evolvable hardware group at Caltech, Pasadena . See http://www.fit.vutbr.cz/~sekanina
This talk introduces evolutionary design and evolvable hardware. We will demonstrate the evolutionary circuit design on some digital circuits that we evolved at FIT, in particular, on small combinational circuits, sorting networks, image filters, benchmark circuits, etc. A novel method will be presented that utilizes development in evolutionary algorithm in order to evolve arbitrarily large circuits.
A complete hardware implementation of an evolvable combinational unit for FPGA's will be described and circuits will be presented that we evolved using the unit directly in hardware. The implementation is based on the concept of virtual reconfigurable circuits. Because the evolvable unit is completely described at the level of VHDL, evolvable hardware becomes independent of a target platform, i.e. it can be offered as an IP core (evolvable component).
As a consequence, traditional reconfigurable computing that utilizes evolvable components can accomplish evolvable computing. A brief introduction tot the theory evolvable components will be given.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Solvable Hardware and Evolvable Computing
November 18, 2004, 12:00 - 1:00 in Reed 114
Dr. Sekanina received all his degrees from Brno University of Technology, Czech Rep. Currently he is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Information Technology, Brno University of Technology. He was a visiting lecturer with Pennsylvania State University and a visiting researcher with Department of Informatics, University of Oslo , Norway in 2001. He is the author of the monograph Evolvable Components (Springer Verlag, 2003) and (co)author of more than 30 refereed conference/journal papers mainly on evolvable hardware. He serves as program/organizing committee member of several international conferences. Lukas Sekanina was awarded with a number of awards at the national as well as international level, including the Best Paper/Presentation Award at IEEE DDECS'02 and ICES'03 conferences, the Merit Award at the GECCO Human competitive result competition 2004, Siemens Award for outstanding MSc thesis (1999) and PhD thesis (2003) and Josef Hlavka Award for research (2003). His research interests focus on theory, design and hardware implementations of bio-inspired computational systems. He popularizes that research in TV and other media. During fall semester 2004 Lukas Sekanina is a Fulbright scholar conducting research with NASA JPL evolvable hardware group at Caltech, Pasadena . See http://www.fit.vutbr.cz/~sekanina
This talk introduces evolutionary design and evolvable hardware. We will demonstrate the evolutionary circuit design on some digital circuits that we evolved at FIT, in particular, on small combinational circuits, sorting networks, image filters, benchmark circuits, etc. A novel method will be presented that utilizes development in evolutionary algorithm in order to evolve arbitrarily large circuits.
A complete hardware implementation of an evolvable combinational unit for FPGA's will be described and circuits will be presented that we evolved using the unit directly in hardware. The implementation is based on the concept of virtual reconfigurable circuits. Because the evolvable unit is completely described at the level of VHDL, evolvable hardware becomes independent of a target platform, i.e. it can be offered as an IP core (evolvable component).
As a consequence, traditional reconfigurable computing that utilizes evolvable components can accomplish evolvable computing. A brief introduction tot the theory evolvable components will be given.
Dr. Robert Gray Penn State Behrend
Synthetic Vision in Transportation Systems
January 20, 2005, 12:00 - 1:00 in Reed 114
Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS) are being researched at Penn State Behrend's Center for Navigation, Communication and Information Systems (CNCIS). SVS show great promise to enhance transportation vehicle safety; especially when a vehicle is operating at night or in inclement weather with poor to no visibility. This presentation will discuss hardware and software components that make up a typical synthetic vision system, including vehicle field test results and important issues concerning database integrity monitoring. A video recording of SVS flight test research will also be included.
Dr. Thomas Hemminger Penn State Behrend
Macine Vision Inspection of Diamond Cutting Blades
March 17, 2005, 12:00 - 1:00 in Reed 114
In the last two decades, methods of forming and shaping concrete and stone have changed significantly. Many companies employ diamond edge grinding tools for cutting expansion slots and maintenance conduits in concrete, and for trimming masonry for buildings and other structures. Current product lines include wet and dry diamond blades, diamond core bits and core drill rigs, along with concrete, wire and masonry saws. All of these tools consist of many segments each made up of very small diamonds distributed homogeneously in a ceramic or metal matrix. One saw blade may require over 100 diamond cutting segments, each of which, must meet rigid quality standards. Some companies manufacture more than 10 million segments per year making manual inspection time consuming, expensive, and unreliable. This work describes an automated system for detecting surface and thickness abnormalities on a popular type of segment. Video cameras, structured lighting, and lasers are all employed in the system, and records compiled to record which defect occurs most often. Special attention to handling must be considered due to the abrasiveness of the materials.
All School of Engineering Speaker Series seminars are free and open to the public. We do ask that you notify us at (814) 898-6153 if you plan to attend the programs. For directions to the campus click here.