FRONTIERS OF ENGINEERING
Reports on Leading-Edge Engineering from the 2009 Symposium
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS
Washington, D.C.
www.nap.edu
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NOTICE: This publication has been reviewed according to procedures approved by a National Academy of Engineering report review process. Publication of signed work signifies that it is judged a competent and useful contribution worthy of public consideration, but it does not imply endorsement of conclusions or recommendations by the NAE. The interpretations and conclusions in such publications are those of the authors and do not purport to represent the views of the council, officers, or staff of the National Academy of Engineering.
Funding for the activity that led to this publication was provided by The Grainger Foundation, Arnold O. and Mabel Beckman Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Department of Defense (DDR&E), National Science Foundation, Microsoft Research, and Cummins, Inc.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-14818-4
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-14818-9
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THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine
The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.
The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. Charles M. Vest is president of the National Academy of Engineering.
The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg is president of the Institute of Medicine.
The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. Charles M. Vest are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
ANDREW M. WEINER (Chair), Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Purdue University
STEPHANIE GUERLAIN, Associate Professor,
Department of Systems and Information Engineering, University of Virginia
SETH GUIKEMA, Assistant Professor,
Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University
LOUISE HAMLIN, Technical Manager,
Next-Generation Image Spectrometers, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
EVA K. LEE, Associate Professor,
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology
MICHAL LIPSON, Associate Professor,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University
J. CHRISTOPHER LOVE, Texaco-Hangeldorf Career Development Assistant Professor,
Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
PATRICK O’MARA, Senior Transportation Engineer,
STV, Inc.
NAREN RAMAKRISHNAN, Professor and Associate Head,
Department of Computer Science, Virginia Tech
NELSON TANSU, Associate Professor,
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Lehigh University
Staff
JANET R. HUNZIKER, Senior Program Officer
VIRGINIA BACON TALATI, Program Associate
JACQUELINE M. MARTIN, Senior Program Assistant
Preface
In 1995, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) initiated the Frontiers of Engineering Program, which brings together about 100 young engineering leaders at annual symposia to learn about cutting-edge research and technical work in a variety of engineering fields. The 2009 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium was held at The National Academies’ Arnold O. and Mabel Beckman Center on September 10-12. Speakers were asked to prepare extended summaries of their presentations, which are reprinted in this volume. The intent of this book is to convey the excitement of this unique meeting and to highlight cutting-edge developments in engineering research and technical work.
GOALS OF THE FRONTIERS OF ENGINEERING PROGRAM
The practice of engineering is continually changing. Engineers today must be able not only to thrive in an environment of rapid technological change and globalization, but also to work on interdisciplinary teams. Cutting-edge research is being done at the intersections of engineering disciplines, and successful researchers and practitioners must be aware of developments and challenges in areas that may not be familiar to them.
Every year at the U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, 100 of this country’s best and brightest engineers, ages 30 to 45, have an opportunity to learn from their peers about pioneering work being done in many areas of engineering. The symposium gives early-career engineers working in academia, industry,
and government in many different engineering disciplines an opportunity to make contacts with and learn from individuals they would not meet in the usual round of professional meetings. This networking may lead to collaborative work and facilitate the transfer of new techniques and approaches. It is hoped that the exchange of information on current developments in many fields of engineering will lead to insights that may be applicable in specific disciplines and thereby build U.S. innovative capacity.
The number of participants at each meeting is limited to 100 to maximize opportunities for interactions and exchanges among the attendees, who are chosen through a competitive nomination and selection process. The topics and speakers for each meeting are selected by an organizing committee of engineers in the same 30- to 45-year-old cohort as the participants. Different topics are covered each year, and, with a few exceptions, different individuals participate.
Speakers describe the challenges they face and communicate the excitement of their work to a technically sophisticated audience with backgrounds in many disciplines. Each speaker provides a brief overview of his/her field of inquiry; defines the frontiers of that field; describes experiments, prototypes, and design studies that have been completed or are in progress, as well as new tools and methodologies, and limitations and controversies; and then summarizes the long-term significance of his/her work.
THE 2009 SYMPOSIUM
The four general topics covered at the 2009 meeting were: engineering tools for scientific discovery, nano/micro photonics and new applications, engineering the health care delivery system, and resilient and sustainable infrastructure. The Engineering Tools for Scientific Discovery session described how advances in technologies and tools provide the foundation for scientific advances. Talks in the session provided examples of this at various scales—from self-assembly at the micro-scale through tools for studying marine mammals and planetary systems to computational sustainability that can answer questions about the interactions of the environment, economics, and societies. The Nano/Micro Photonics and New Applications session focused on the development of optical materials structured on a length scale comparable to the wavelength of light. Presentations in this session covered optical antennas for enhanced light-matter interactions, light forces in guided-wave nanostructures, intersubband optoelectronics, and light-emitting diode technology for solid-state lighting. Health care delivery was the topic of the third session, which included presentations on health information technology and its role in diagnosis and treatment advances, patient safety and detection of adverse events, and effective disease management. The symposium concluded with talks on resilient and sustainable infrastructure that included an overview of the state of U.S. infrastructure, methods for assessing the vulnerability of urban infrastructure systems to natural disasters, and life-cycle assessment modeling.
In addition to the plenary sessions, the participants had many opportunities to engage in informal interactions. On the first afternoon of the meeting, participants broke into small groups for “get-acquainted” sessions during which individuals presented short descriptions of their work and answered questions from their colleagues. This helped attendees get to know more about each other relatively early in the program. On the second afternoon, attendees had another opportunity for informal interaction by joining “salons” that were discipline- or topic-based, e.g., materials, product/process development, energy/environment, information/communication, etc. There were also groups on engineering education issues and a movie and discussion about infrastructure that was a lead-in to the following day’s plenary session.
Every year, a distinguished engineer addresses the participants at dinner on the first evening of the symposium. The speaker this year was Dr. Bradford W. Parkinson, Edward C. Wells Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Emeritus, at Stanford University, who gave a talk on the challenges of developing the global positioning system (GPS) as well as its military and civilian applications and future.
NAE is deeply grateful to the following organizations for their support of the 2009 U.S. Frontiers of Engineering Symposium:
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The Grainger Foundation
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Arnold O. and Mabel Beckman Foundation
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Air Force Office of Scientific Research
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Department of Defense–DDR&E Research
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Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. This material is based upon work supported by, or in part by, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory and the U.S. Army Research Office under contract number W911NF-09-1-0098.
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National Science Foundation. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant number EFRI-0903867.
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Microsoft Research
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Cummins Inc.
NAE would also like to thank the members of the Symposium Organizing Committee (p. iv), chaired by Dr. Andrew M. Weiner, for planning and organizing the event.
Contents
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Introduction |
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Digital Holographic Microscopy for 3D Imaging of Complex Fluids and Biological Systems |
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Engineering Tools for Studying Marine Mammals |
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The Kepler Mission: A Search for Terrestrial Planets |
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Computational Sustainability: Computational Methods for a Sustainable Environment, Economy, and Society |
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Introduction |
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Optical Antennas: A New Technology That Can Enhance Light-Matter Interactions |
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Nano-Opto-Mechanics: Using Light Forces in Guided-Wave Nanostructures |
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Light-Emitting Diode Technology for Solid-State Lighting |
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Introduction |
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Why Health Information Technology Doesn’t Work |
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Calibration in Computer Models for Medical Diagnosis and Prognostication |
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Medical Informatics for Detecting Adverse Events |
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Managing and Coordinating Health Care: Creating Collaborative, Proactive Systems |
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Introduction |
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America’s Infrastructure Report Card: Causes, Costs, and Solutions |
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Infrastructure Resilience to Disasters |
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The Environmental Footprint of Infrastructure |
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