2001 — 2004 |
Redd, Frank Spall, Robert |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Space-Related Research Within the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering At Utah State University
This award provides funding to Utah State University (USU), for a three-year REU Site Program in Space-Related Research, under the direction of Dr. Robert E. Spall. During each summer, 8 undergraduate students will participate in an intensive 10-week research experience. The primary compnent of the project requires students to complete a space-related research project (or component of a larger, ongoing project) primarily at the USU Space Dynamics Laboratory, under the direction of a faculty advisor and a graduate student mentor. Students will also participate in weekly seminars with topics to include aerospace research, technical writing and oral presentations, and graduate school. The program will culminate with attendance at the AIAA/USU Annual Small Satellite Conference at which the students will have an opportunity to present the results of their work.
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0.915 |
2003 — 2006 |
Hauser, Thomas [⬀] Held, Eric (co-PI) [⬀] Hardy, Thomas Spall, Robert Farrelly, David (co-PI) [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Development of a Low-Cost 64 Bit Cluster Supercomputer For Engineering and Physics Simulations
ABSTRACT
Proposal No. CTS-0321170 Principal Investigator: J. T. Hauser, Utah State University
This grant focuses on combining two leading-edge technologies, dual-processor AMD Opteron systems and Flat Neighborhood Networks (FNNs) based on Gigabit Ethernet, to develop a uniquely designed cluster supercomputer. In addition to providing a 64-bit memory address space, the Opteron uses a new memory architecture that should avoid the memory performance degradation normally associated with shared-memory multiprocessors. Similarly, using a FNN interconnection pattern makes it possible to achieve single-switch latency despite having more nodes than a low-cost network switch has ports. FNNs also provide the possibility to optimize the networking characteristics toward the communication patterns of applications running on the proposed cluster supercomputer. This project will provide a low-cost alternative to commercially available high performance cluster networking solutions such as Myrinet and Quadrics. The software to design and optimize such a network will be made available for free, so that other research groups can design and build their own cluster with FNNs. The proposed system will also provide valuable insight in the performance of a newly designed memory system for large applications compared to other available memory system designs.
The research to be conducted includes computational fluid dynamics, ecohydraulics, fusion plasmas, geophysical fluid dynamics and computational chemistry. To meet the rising demand for students skilled in high-performance computing, the College of Engineering will introduce a course in parallel computing for engineering applications targeted at senior level undergraduate and beginning graduate students. This course as well as a one-week workshop on cluster computing will also be open to students in mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science.
In addition, the proposed cluster supercomputer will enhance current relationships with nearby national laboratories such as the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). USU faculty and graduate students are developing very computationally intensive CFD models in conjunction with INEEL engineers. The visibility arising from this cooperative effort will further enhance the goal of attracting more students and faculty.
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0.915 |
2003 — 2005 |
Hauser, Thomas (co-PI) [⬀] Haupt, Sue Ellen (co-PI) [⬀] Spall, Robert |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Enhancement of Computational Engineering Within An Undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Curriculum
Engineering - Other (59) Our project addresses issues in undergraduate education at research universities highlighted in the 1998 Boyer Commission Report. Our aim is to incorporate advances in information technology into the curriculum, and is consistent with recent increased emphasis in the applied areas of information technology by the National Science Foundation. This has been accomplished by developing an option to the department's undergraduate Mechanical Engineering degree in the area of Computational Engineering. We have worked with faculty from the Engineering Research Center at Mississippi State University to adapt the curricula from their undergraduate minor in Computational Engineering to our Utah State University program. We have also built a PC Beowulf cluster consisting of 5 server and 20 compute nodes to support the Computational Engineering option. This will be accomplished by adopting a cluster design process developed at the University of Kentucky. Undergraduate students are being exposed to cluster designs and programming models through a week long seminar, which will be offered on a yearly basis. Results of our efforts will be disseminated through the national ASEE conference and through publication in an engineering education journal. In addition, materials from the cluster workshop will be made available through our Department's website.
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0.915 |
2003 — 2007 |
Crow, Donna Olsen, Eric Bayn, Kathleen Spall, Robert Furse, Cynthia (co-PI) [⬀] Thurgood, Ronald |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Undergraduate Scholarships in Engineering to Improve Retention and Diversity
Significant increases in the number of engineering and related technology graduates from the Utah State System of Higher Education will be required over the next several years to advance the intellectual and economic well being of the state and its citizens. In response, the State Board of Regents has developed an Engineering and Computer Science Initiative within the state system of higher education with intentions to double the number of graduates in engineering and related technology majors by the year 2006. The faculty within the College of Engineering believe that efforts to improve retention, and to increase enrollment opportunities for students from underrepresented minorities, will contribute significantly toward that goal. Central to this effort is an increase in the number of scholarship opportunities available to engineering students within each of the 5 departments in the College of Engineering. For each year of the four year duration of this project, 30 need-based scholarships at $3,125 each are being awarded. The scholarships allow students to spend more time on academic pursuits, and less time employed outside the University. Scholarship recipients must: 1) be U.S. citizens, 2) enroll full time within the College of Engineering, 3) demonstrate financial need as defined by the U.S. Department of Education rules for Federal Financial aid, and 4) show academic potential or ability. Recruitment is done through the USU Office of High School/College Relations, the Multicultural Student Center, and the College of Engineering. In addition to traditional recruiting methods, the college recruits through its annual Engineering State program, a four day event held each spring in which approximately 250 high school juniors from throughout the State of Utah are introduced to the opportunities available in the various fields of engineering. In addition to scholarship opportunities, the program also provides CSEMS scholars with: 1) a formal program through which they can receive academic assistance and advising, 2) a mechanism to promote interaction with upper-division students and faculty on a regular basis, 3) research opportunities with faculty mentors, and 4) early access to co-op/internship opportunities and industry mentors. The CSEMS program is directed by faculty members from the College of Engineering and staff from High School/College Relations, the Multicultural Student Center, and USU Career Services.
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0.915 |
2005 — 2008 |
Hauser, Thomas (co-PI) [⬀] Tullis, Blake (co-PI) [⬀] Spall, Robert Nguyen, Kytai Smith, Barton [⬀] |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Mri: Realizing the Potential of Time-Resolved Piv Through Development of Integrated in-Lab Beowulf Cluster Processing
CTS-0521621 B. Smith, Utah State University
This grant is to develop an instrument that can acquire and rapidly process and store the very large samples generated by Time-Resolved Stereo Particle Image Velocimetry (TRSPIV). Currently, there is a large gap between the time required to acquire such data and the time necessary to process it. Closing this gap by providing an order of magnitude increase in processing power will realize the potential of this powerful technique. The new system is based on a Beowulf cluster supercomputer specifically designed to handle and process TRSPIV image data sets of 5.2 Giga Bytes or more. The parallel processing will be completely transparent to the user and will require no knowledge of parallel processing, removing inhibitions about acquiring large samples and allowing the user to concentrate on the experiment. This system will be used in several departments of the College of Engineering at Utah State University and at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). TRSPIV measurements will become accessible to a large segment of the fluid dynamics community. For a modest increase in cost, it will become possible to process the very large samples that time-resolved SPIV generates. Other measurements involving large samples, such as phase-locked measurements in periodic flows (e.g. flow control studies) will also benefit. Experience has shown PIV to be very accessible measurement technique, making this system valuable in the productive undergraduate research program at Utah State. The PIs also plan to use the system for outreach activities with local high schools and under represented groups.
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0.915 |
2015 — 2020 |
Fang, Ning [⬀] Barr, Paul Spall, Robert Mcneill, Laurie |
N/AActivity Code Description: No activity code was retrieved: click on the grant title for more information |
Improving Undergraduate Engineering Education Through Student-Centered, Active and Cooperative Learning
The Improving Undergraduate Engineering Education through Student-Centered, Active and Cooperative Learning project at Utah State University involves a multi-fold plan to increase the number, diversity, and quality of engineers entering the workforce. The project will provide four-year scholarships to 26 undergraduate students majoring in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Engineering. The project responds to the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness' call for more engineers to meet the nation's technological workforce needs. The scholarships will allow talented and financially needy students to reduce the time spent working to cover tuition and expenses and devote time to study and other activities beneficial to students' ability to graduate and enter the engineering profession. To broaden participation, the project will include recruitment through entities which target economically disadvantaged students and underrepresented groups.
Informed by recommendations from the National Research Council's "How People Learn" study, the program will institute learning communities, organized between two departments led by faculty mentors. The program will take advantage of existing student educational support and professional development services including: supplemental instruction (tutoring & peer study groups), undergraduate research, field trips, internships and co-ops, and career counseling. Further, they will increase use of research-proven instructional practices (such as problem-based learning and project-based learning) in several engineering classes to enhance the learning environment for all students, not just program scholars. The program will offer seminars to College of Engineering faculty to promote adoption of research-proven pedagogies and improve teaching and learning in all six College departments. Formative and summative evaluation will be performed by an external evaluator. The project will provide information on program outcomes and lessons learned from the project to the K-16 STEM education community nationwide by dissemination through journals, conferences, and web resources.
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0.915 |