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KINGSTON, R.I. Aug. 12, 2021 The University of Rhode Island has announced the appointment of Anthony J. Marchese, Ph.D., as dean of the College of Engineering and Vincent and Estelle Murphy Professor of Engineering. Marchese comes to URI from Colorado State University where he has served as associate dean for academic and student affairs for the Walter L. Scott, Jr. College of Engineering. Marchese will succeed Raymond Wright who is retiring after 14 years as dean. Marchese is expected to begin his duties Jan. 1, 2022.

The University of Rhode Island College of Engineering is home to more than 1,600 undergraduate and 200 graduate students. Over the past decade, the College has seen enrollment nearly double, along with substantial growth in research funding, partnerships, philanthropic support, and investment in new faculty.

We are thrilled to have Dr. Marchese on board to lead our engineering college, said URI President Marc Parlange. His expertise in methane emissions and clean energy aligns closely with our alternative energy and sustainability ambitions. He will continue URIs leadership to provide opportunities for students and faculty to innovate and engage with industry and policy makers, as part of URIs commitment to boosting the Rhode Island economy and finding solutions to the worlds most pressing problems.

We are so pleased to welcome Dr. Marchese to the University of Rhode Island. As an associate dean at CSU for the last five years, he brings an important ability to build solid relationships with faculty and students, helping to ensure that both succeed, said Donald H. DeHayes, provost and vice president for academic affairs. Dr. Marchese is a respected administrator, researcher and educator who will be a valuable member of our team and the Council of Deans. We look forward to working alongside him as he leads the URI College of Engineering into the future.

As dean, Marchese is charged with providing direction, advocacy and oversight for the College of Engineering, faculty, students and staff; promoting the academic, research and community service missions of the College and the University; building partnerships with national and international academic and research institutions, business and industry, federal state and local government, alumni and other constituencies; collaborating with other programs across the University; and enhancing the overall reputation of the University of Rhode Island and the College of Engineering.

A Mount Olive, New Jersey, native, Marchese arrived at CSU in 2008 as an associate professor of mechanical engineering before being promoted to full professor. In the Department of Mechanical Engineering, he was the director of the CSU Engines and Energy Conversion Laboratory and founded and directed the Advanced Biofuels Combustion Laboratory, focusing on development of bio-derived, drop-in replacements for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. Marchese also served as associate department head for graduate studies, overseeing the program in mechanical engineering. He was named associate dean in 2016.

Marchese is an expert in internal combustion engines, biofuels and methane emissions from the oil and gas industry and his work has been broadly disseminated in over 350 journal, conference and invited presentations. Results from his work on methane emissions have been published in Science, Nature Communications and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and have informed state and national policy makers on greenhouse gas emission regulations. Since 2019, he has served as the chair of the U.S. Sections of The Combustion Institute. He is also a dedicated engineering educator and recipient of numerous honors and awards for his excellence in teaching, including the American Society for Engineering Education Kauffman Award for Technology Entrepreneurship. In 2001, he was named a Carnegie Scholar by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Prior to CSU, Marchese taught at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, where he created the Rowan Undergraduate Venture Capital Fund for rapid development of student inventions. While teaching, he also became the first executive director of the South Jersey Technology Park at Rowan University, overseeing its development and managing all day-to-day operations.

My family and I could not be more excited to be joining the community at URI. As a first-generation college student, engineering researcher and educator, I am simultaneously humbled and exhilarated at the prospect of stewarding the College of Engineering on its upward trajectory, while staying grounded in its core values as a public, land-grant research university, said Marchese. The next generation of college graduates will be charged with solving civilization scale challenges in energy, environment, climate and human health, and I know that the URI community is ready to roll up their sleeves and get to work.

URIs College of Engineering offers more than 25 academic programs across five academic departments, including the Universitys world-renowned International Engineering Program. Each of these programs is built around hands-on, dynamic classroom and lab experiences combined with research and internship opportunities that provide students with the kind of well-rounded educational experience needed to begin their careers on the right foot.

In 2019, the College celebrated the opening of the new Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering, a six-story, 190,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility housing active classrooms, core laboratories, industrial interaction space, makerspaces, research laboratories, as well as 13 conference rooms and a student cafe. That project, along with an addition and upgrades to the Colleges historic home, Bliss Hall, were funded primarily by $150 million in bonds approved by Rhode Island voters.

Marchese will be joined by his wife, Liz, an elementary school teacher, teenage sons, Tanner and Sam, and dog Mustard.

Marchese holds a Ph.D. and Master of Arts in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University and Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in mechanical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Read more here:

URI names Anthony Marchese to lead College of Engineering - URI Today

Lego my aerogel?

As it turns out, the structure of the beloved little plastic bricks is good for more than making scale replicas and causing barefoot parents to swear in the dark.

Researchers at the University of Akron have studied the design of Legos and come up with a way to make strong aerogel structures.

"We were inspired by the simplicity of Legos and used them as templates to develop load bearing aerogel structures that are stronger and more durable," reports Dr. Sadhan Jana, associate dean of research in UA's College of Engineering and Polymer Science.

You might be asking yourself: "What the heck is an aerogel?"

According to UA, "Aerogels are created by combining a polymer with a solvent to form a gel, and then removing the liquid from the gel and replacing it with air."

What's left, according to UA, is a porous structure with very low density. But until now, those structures have been fairly weak, though aerogels are still used in things like thermal insulation for spacecraft and oceanic pipelines and sound barriers.

UA researchers found a way to engineer them better by emulating Legos.

"The Lego-like aerogel bricks are made from polymer struts with the interior space filled with aerogels. The aerogel inclusions provide desired thermal insulation, and the modular nature and strength are the main benefits of the bricks," UA said in a release announcing the breakthrough.

This apparently makes for a stronger structure a lot stronger.

"If an 8,000-pound elephant was standing on a 12"x16"x16" aerogel brick structure, it would not break," Jana said in the university's announcement.

This may make aerogels useful in far more applications, the school says, and UA reports work already is underway for aerogel brick designs for better air filters and packing materials for cryogenic thermal insulation.

And, because the bricks can be put together similarly to Legos, they more easily can be used to make bigger things.

"Now," Jana says, "we can use our imagination to scale up depending on how big the application is, just by putting the Lego-bricks together."

There's no word on a kit to make the Millennium Falcon or Death Star out of aerogel bricks yet, but we've got our fingers crossed.

Link:

UA researchers solve engineering problem with help from Legos - Crain's Cleveland Business

The nuclear industry is embracing virtual reality technology to optimise its operations and improve safety, as a recent white paper from Tecknotrove Systems explains.

While nuclear power plants are usually very safe and secure, they remain prone to severe accidents or production losses due to human errors. Virtual reality (VR) makes it possible to create realistic and immersive training environments relating to nuclear power plants to train operators on how to perform the tasks safely. VR training allows operators to practice various situations - such as emergency evacuation, plant operation, fuel handling, leaks and fires - in a virtual site. As the simulated environments feel extremely realistic, it creates a highly immersive experience to teach the right response in difficult situations.

Periodic inspection and maintenance of a turbine generator are very important. However, conducting hands-on training in maintenance of the turbines and engines in a nuclear plant can be a challenge, thanks to the time it takes, the risks and the costs involved. VR makes it possible to train for the maintenance engineers in a more engaging and safer manner without the hassles of finding the actual equipment to use during training. From assembly to dismantling of turbines, through repair, a virtual environment helps technicians to go through various steps of training and see all the parts working together before they do it in a real plant.

Training operators to handle crucial functions in the control room of a nuclear plant is critical. VR has proved to be an effective and efficient training tool.

In order to enhance users' understanding of nuclear reactor principles, a virtual reality system based on a simulator can be developed to interface with the scenarios in nuclear power plants. With VR, a nuclear plant can provide an immersive training experience to its operators without affecting the safety of the power plant. Using VR, owners can simulate everything from basic operations to emergency situations, with real-life stress factors to make the training very realistic.

Entry to a nuclear power plant is restricted and not often open to young engineers or visitors. VR allows engineers to perform the activities within the plant, freely navigating it to develop a better understanding of the orientation of the plant without compromising safety.

Virtual tours of nuclear power plants allow visitors to experience the control room, dive down to the reactor, or head to the turbine hall and switch yard.

Providing training for decommissioning nuclear power plants is a lengthy process. VR gives a sense of what it is like inside the reactors in reality. It is serving a critical role in training teams to decommission the reactors. VR training can help nuclear power plant workers at decommissioning sites by familiarising them with the relevant steps in a safe and controlled environment. Training set up in highly realistic environments can help prevent accidents. Using VR for decommissioning training is also cost-effective, since operators need disposable protective gear for physical training, which can be extremely expensive. In some countries, decommissioning authorities have also started using VR-powered decommissioning solutions, as robots can work faster and they are unaffected by continuous exposure to radioactive elements.

It is necessary to train the operation and maintenance crews for fuel handling systems in a nuclear power plant. Safe handling of fuel assemblies is important to ensure smooth functioning. However, the configuration of the fuel channels is complex, and training the engineers in real life can be tricky. Through computer simulations, VR provides a safe and highly realistic environment where they can learn about handling fuel without exposing themselves to radiation or compromising the structural integrity of the reactor.

Preparing for accidents and emergencies that may occur at a nuclear power plant is a necessity. Laws in each country require nuclear operating companies to develop and maintain emergency preparedness plans for their nuclear power plants to protect the public. However, planning and managing such training can take up a considerable amount of time and resources. This is where training in a simulated environment is important. Emergency situations - loss of electric supply, failure of emergency generators, failure of cooling system or leaks - can be recreated in a virtual environment for training and testing purposes. Virtual environments allow users to test the correct operation of the devices, tools and procedures that would be employed in different emergency situations, and it helps to maintain the level of preparedness of the staff that would be involved with these emergencies.

Additionally, VR makes it possible to test the response time and the communication and decision-making skills of the teams in emergency situations that could not be created in real life.

Most of the nuclear industry still primarily uses traditional training methods - computer based training, with limited sessions of on-site training. As a result, the engineers are not always certain about what needs to be done in real life or in an actual environment.

VR enables creation and simulation of virtual worlds. These worlds immerse trainees in the virtual environment as if it were an actual nuclear power plant. In a VR environment, trainees can move around the plant under complete safety. VR controllers allow the trainee to interact with virtual control panels, turbines and fuels in the virtual world, which is not possible in real-life training. VR training thus results in higher reproducibility and safety.

It is also cost-effective, since multiple sessions can be conducted at relatively low cost . Studies have shown that VR-enabled training has improved the overall responsiveness of those working at nuclear plants.

The best thing about VR is that it enables real-time collaboration and creates an accurate immersive environment. For assembly, operations, maintenance and decommissioning of nuclear power plants training through VR can be used at all stages at a fraction of the cost of other options and in complete safety.

The nuclear industry can use VR training to increase efficiency and maximise operations. It is a safe way of training teams and attracting young workers to the industry.

Tecknotrove Systems one of Asias leading VR simulation companies offers customised solutions to nuclear power plants in areas of Radiation Safety, Environment Monitoring, Radiation Security, Air Monitoring and Emergency Management to solve the real challenges faced by the industry. Some of its existing clients include Department Of Atomic Energy, BARC, NPCIL to name a few.

Continue reading here:

Virtual reality in the nuclear industry - Nuclear Engineering

Often people find themselves in a complex system-of-systems

FACED with an increasingly complex and interconnected world, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) wants to cement the engineering profession as recognised leaders on safety in complex systems, which can support other professions and help shape the global agenda.

Engineering X, a partnership between RAEng and Lloyds Register that brings together experts to help address the greatest challenges of our time, has published a strategy and sponsored a series of case studies to better understand complex systems and how to manage them. It has called for changes to engineering education and professional development, and the development of new tools and a shared language to help disciplines better manage safety.

Complex systems are many and varied, growing in number and impacting our lives daily, often in ways we dont realise, said Roger Kemp, who leads the Engineering X Safer Complex Systems advisory group.

Some complex systems are engineered such as a city metro system there is a plan, the participants are known in advance, and there are protocols and regulations in place. There is little ambiguity over its geographical extent, assets, operations or responsibility for the safety of the network. Other complex systems can be ad hoc with no central authority, players joining and leaving at will, and regulation covered by multiple jurisdictions.

Often people find themselves in a complex system-of-systems that, until one system fails and there is a cascading effect on lots of other systems, no-one had previously thought of as being interconnected, and the development of appropriate oversight and governance is not keeping up with the pace of change.

Kemp pointed to Storm Desmond which struck the UK in 2015. The resulting loss of power knocked out phone networks and ATM machines, and left petrol pumps inoperable.

Dame Judith Hackitt, Chair of Engineering X Safer Complex Systems, said: The increasing complexity and interconnectedness of the world we live in has made us all more vulnerable to systemic shocks like the current Covid-19 pandemic. We need to ask ourselves three questions: How can we manage complexity more effectively? How can we find ways to simplify and share knowledge and good practice? And how do we raise awareness and increase competency across engineering disciplines and beyond?

Chairing a virtual briefing on the programme, Dame Judith said it is not exclusively about systems engineering. This is about complex systems that involve many different disciplines. Not all of those disciplines are technical. Some of them are human systems, they are social systems, they can be regulatory systems, and many more.

The programmes origins lie in a report commissioned in 2018 by Lloyds Register Foundation (LRF) on global safety challenges that highlighted the risks of complex systems failing. The RAEng and LRF founded the Engineering X Safer Complex Systems programme in 2019. What followed were workshops and a study by the University of York that led to recommendations on how to support society to better manage complexity and an initial framework (pictured below) to help those in different sectors and disciplines analyse systemic failure and manage complexity safely.

An initial framework for analysing systemic failure and managing complexity safely. Reproduced from the Safer Complex Systems strategy

Recommendations from the programme have included that the Engineering Council and professional engineering institutions (PEIs) consider how competencies for chartered status take account of cross-disciplinary working, systems thinking and engineering ethics. Theres also the need for outcomes-based regulation and research into how rare, high-consequence events impose risks on engineered structures.

Having gathered evidence and built a core community, the programme is now moving into a build phase that will run to 2023. It has identified four key areas to address: education, governance, advocacy, and building a diverse community.

On education, the strategy says that engineering education needs overhauling so that engineers have the competencies to understand and manage issues arising from complexity.

Dame Judith said: We believe that means we need a radical rethink of what is and is not in an engineers education, and we need to better understand how we train our engineers so that they have the necessary competencies to understand and manage issues arising out of complexity and to lead in delivering safety.

The panellists of the virtual briefing were asked how engineering education should change. Kemp said that courses could introduce undergraduates to systems, explore how to define them and make them stable. He said while undergraduates need to understand the fundamentals, they could spend less time doing detailed calculations given the available software.

Danielle Antonellis, who is conducting a case study for Engineering X on how fire risks emerge in informal urban settlements, said: In addition to thinking about systems thinking, we need to think about closing the gap between physical sciences and social and political sciences. I certainly didnt have any social or political science courses when I was in engineering school and now Ive learned a lot of it on my own. I wish I would have had it earlier. Theres certainly opportunities to bring disciplines closer together at an earlier stage, and education is a great opportunity for that.

Dame Judith said: As things become more difficult to predict and we can no longer base our understanding or approach to safety management on things that have already happened and which we can learn from, we know that we need to develop new tools because our existing tools may not be suited to the new context that we find ourselves working in. We believe we need to develop new safety management tools as well as continuing to use the old tools but recognising their limitations when dealing with new problems.

Engineering X has commissioned 19 case studies into the successes and failures of complex systems to show what has been learned and anticipate what is needed to stay safe in the future. They cover a wide array of topics including the vulnerability of rural communities threatened by wildfire; resilience of humanitarian supply chain crashes affected by the pandemic; rail accidents in the UK; dam failure and flooding in Australia; and structural integrity in offshore energy infrastructure. They will test the applicability of the framework developed by the University of York and are due to be completed later this year. The case studies will be used to develop new educational tools to support the education and professional development of engineers in academia and industry.

In its strategy, Engineering X outlined a number of issues to address. These include that the framework developed by the University of York lacks focus on those early planning stages ahead of design work where the seeds of problems can be sown. It also recognises that it would be useful to develop a shared lexicon of safety to help avoid confusion between those working in different sectors who use the same term for different things.

Looking towards its lead phase from 2023, the programme seeks to reach the point where the engineering profession leads in the prevention of systemic failure in engineered infrastructure systems and supports other professions to prevent systemic failure in non-engineered infrastructure systems globally.

It has called on interested people to join the effort and feed in to plans for future activities as it seeks to build a diverse international community.

For more information, visit: https://www.raeng.org.uk/global/international-partnerships/engineering-x/safer-complex-systems

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Engineering X outlines strategy for the profession to lead on safety in complex systems - The Chemical Engineer