Missouri Compacts: Research and Creative Works, Page 27

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Mizzou Engineers Using Twitter to Track COVID-19

Mizzou Engineers are taking to Twitter to track COVID-19 and analyze the virus's impact on individual health. Yijie Ren, Jiacheng Xie and Lei Jiang are using Twitter’s built-in programming interface to search tweets for key phrases such as “I tested positive.” From there, they’re delving deeper into the Twitter user’s account to log symptoms and recovery experiences.
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Professor Helping Develop Better Way to Diagnose COVID-19

A Mizzou Engineer has teamed up with a company to help develop a better way to diagnose COVID-19. Dong Xu, Shumaker Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, is working with a company applying nanopore sequencers to test DNA samples for the virus. Xu will then help develop a system to analyze the DNA data.
Screenshot of game used to teach autonomous systems.

Autonomous Systems Will be the Future; IT Professor Making Sure Mizzou Engineers are Ready

Driverless taxis. Delivery drones. Robots that can complete complex tasks. These technologies are emerging quickly, and Dale Musser is determined to make sure Mizzou Engineers are ready.
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EECS Student Takes First-Place Award for Sleep Apnea Research

Omiya Hassan took top honors at the 37th Annual Research & Creative Activities Forum for helping develop a smarter way to diagnose sleep apnea.
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Protein Prediction Challenge Makes History – and Mizzou Engineers Rank in Top 10

Mizzou Engineering students took on tech giants at a worldwide competition last month and came home in the top 10 for devising a way to accurately predict protein structures. And in subcategories, Mizzou teams ranked in the top 3.
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Mizzou Engineers Experiment in Zero Gravity

A Mizzou Engineering team consisting of researchers and students recently performed and completed their work in a unique setting – a zero-gravity environment.
A highly renowned researcher took a few minutes out of his busy schedule this week to address graduate students in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Satish S Nair is an EECS professor, director of the Neural Engineering Lab and one of the first researchers to begin using engineering principles to better understand the complex circuits of the brain. During a monthly EECS Graduate Student Association (GSA) virtual meeting, Nair gave an overview of his work, then provided students with some tips to boost their own productivity. Participating in the EECS organization is a good first start, he said, as it develops leadership and other practical skills. Nair also recommended minimizing distractions while working or even relaxing. “Distractors disrupt processes in the brain,” he said. “If you have 10 programs running, how can you focus on any one? If you think about that in terms of your laptop, if you open a lot of stuff, it crashes. That translates to your own brain.” Taking walks, enjoying hobbies and avoiding upsetting media are also keys to living a happy, productive life, he said. “We don’t talk about that enough, and we don’t value it enough.” Lightening Talk Nair was the featured “Lightening Talk” guest at this month’s EECS GSA meeting. Modeled after popular TED Talks, these presentations give faculty, students and invited guests an opportunity to share interesting research, projects or hobbies, said Lia Howe, outgoing president of EECS GSA. Nair Following his formal presentation, attendees had the opportunity to tap into Nair’s brain and discuss his work in the context of their own projects. For instance one student wanted to know how studying brain models compares to his research around the autonomous systems that power drones. The brain is more complex, but researchers are getting closer to starting to understand its hardware and its operating system, Nair said. He is currently working on a project analyzing data from a collaborator who inserts high-density neural probes  into rodent brains to solve the mystery. The probes’ sensors can monitor close to 300 neurons and records the spikes each neuron emits. Similar to radar technology, researchers are using those signals to get more information about what actually happens in the brain when, say, a rodent is deciding whether to risk potential danger in exchange for the reward of a food pellet. “Psychology says based on a behavior, we believe something is going on, but now we are able to get data,” he said. “But what language are neurons talking? What is their hardware? How are they configured? We’re in the beginning stages of understanding that.” In the meantime, he encouraged engineering students to continue to look to psychologists and psychology books for answers, and potential interdisciplinary projects in the area. 'GEECS' The EECS Graduate Student Association—informally known as the “GEECS”— helps foster professional and social relationships among those pursuing master’s and PhD degrees. Meetings are held monthly. Prior to social distancing restrictions, the group also held special events such as trivia nights and fundraisers. This semester, the organization improvised and offered game nights virtually, Howe said. This week was Howe’s last meeting as president. She’s graduating this month with a Master of Science in Computer Engineering. Trevor Bajkowski, who is working on a PhD in computer science, will transition from serving as vice president to president this coming semester. Howe encourages all EECS graduate students to get involved in the organization. “EECS GSA, or GEECS, is a great group to connect with other graduate students and faculty,” she said. “It is a low-commitment organization, where we want everyone to have fun. GEECS loves to meet new students.” Interested in studying neural engineering? Consider earning an undergraduate certificate in Neural Engineering-Signals or Neural Engineering-Systems or a graduate certificate in Neural Engineering-Signals, Systems & Machine Learning.

Professor Shares Insights into Neural Engineering

A highly renowned researcher took a few minutes out of his busy schedule this week to address graduate students in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Satish S Nair is an EECS professor, director of the Neural Engineering Lab and one of the first researchers to begin using engineering principles to better understand the…
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Mizzou Engineer Researching Predictive Maintenance with Aid of Machine Learning

Failing equipment, whether a dead car battery or paper jam, can ruin your day and alter your plans. Or a manufacturer’s production line fails for an unknown reason, causing delays in production, shipping and sales. Currently, there is very little to no warning given to address these problematic issues before they happen. However, Kangwon Seo, an assistant professor in industrial and manufacturing systems engineering with a joint appointment in statistics, is researching how machines can use predictive maintenance themselves to detect when they are going to fail.
Portrait: Matthias Young

Young Honored with Top Investigator Award

Matthias Young, assistant professor in biomedical, biological and chemical engineering, received the prestigious 2020 Paul H. Holloway Young Investigator Award from the American Vacuum Society (AVS) Thin Film Division.
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Ma Elected National Academy of Inventors Fellow

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Professor Hongbin “Bill” Ma was elected to the level of Fellow by the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). This is the top professional designation for academic inventors worldwide. “I am very excited about being named a Fellow,”…