Stanford Engineering eDay 2011
Keynote
Judy Estrin (MS '77 Electrical Engineering), Chief Executive Officer, JLABS
Session A
Designer Materials for the Human Body
Sarah Heilshorn, Assistant Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Did you know that hip implants and golf clubs are made of the same stuff? Or that vascular bypasses and raincoats often share the same flexible material? Researchers at Stanford are working on next-generation materials that may replace even more complicated body parts. Join Professor Sarah Heilshorn as she explores the fascinating science and promising breakthrough materials that might one day promote tissue-regeneration therapies following spinal cord injuries or heart attacks, or counter the degenerative effects of Parkinson’s disease.
Biotic Games: Interactive Biology at the Micro-Scale
Ingmar Riedel-Kruse, Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
Who doesn’t love a good game? Since the beginning of human history, cultural and technological advancements have produced new games of intelligence, skill and luck. Lately, bioengineers have gotten into the (ahem) game, too. Professor Ingmar Riedel-Kruse creates “biotic games” in which humans play with real biological processes at the microscopic scale. Join Professor Riedel-Kruse as he demonstrates a few of his lab’s latest games and discusses the future of biotic games that could yield advances in real-world biotechnology, enable crowd-sourcing of the scientific method, and make modern biology both educational and a lot of fun.
Fuels from Sunlight
Tom Jaramillo, Assistant Professor, Chemical Engineering
In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama specifically mentioned research activities in converting sunlight into chemical fuels. Why? Because chemical fuels work really well! So well that they account for over 80% of worldwide energy consumption, but unfortunately they are derived from fossil resources such as natural gas, petroleum and coal. Leading engineers like Professor Tom Jaramillo are hot on the trail of new, cleaner, more sustainable pathways to chemical fuels made with solar energy. Join Professor Jaramillo as he discusses the prospect of moving away from traditional fossil-based chemical fuels toward cleaner fuels synthesized with the power of the sun.
Session B
Walk This Way
Tom Andriacchi, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Orthopedic Surgery
To most, “Walk This Way” is the title of a great Aerosmith tune. To Stanford Engineering Professor Tom Andriacchi, however, the phrase is much more. It is a metaphor for why we study the mechanics of human movement. Over decades of research, Andriacchi learned that sometimes all it takes are simple modifications in the way we walk or move our bodies to produce some pretty remarkable results, like reducing the risk of knee injuries, preventing arthritis, and even enhancing athletic performances such as pitching a baseball or serving a tennis ball. Join us as Professor Andriacchi draws upon real-world examples from his research at Stanford’s BioMotion Lab to explore why a deeper understanding of engineering is critical to the study of human movement.
Earthquake-Safe Buildings
Greg Deierlein, Professor Civil and Environmental Engineering
As seen with the recent earthquakes in Japan, Haiti and Chile, among others, earthquakes are a major threat to modern society. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Stanford became a leader in earthquake engineering and has made remarkable contributions to our understanding of earthquakes and their structural effects. Join Professor Gregory Deierlein as he explores the fascinating science behind earthquake engineering and highlights recent advances in the field, including a new rocking-frame building system tested at scale on the world’s largest shaking table.
Sowing Social Seeds: Voice Tech Connects India’s Farmers
Scott Klemmer, Assistant Professor, Computer Science and Neil Patel, Computer Science PhD Candidate
Online communities are powerful, but often out of reach to the poor and geographically isolated for technical and literacy reasons. Mobile phones have the potential to address both of these gaps. Professor Klemmer and Neil Patel, in collaboration with Professor Tapan Parikh of UC Berkeley and others, have pioneered voice-based social media tools to help rural communities connect online. This work includes Avaaj Otalo (“voice stoop” in Gujarati) a voice message board app that allows small-scale farmers in India to post, listen and reply to agricultural advice using any phone. In their talk, Professor Klemmer and Neil Patel will explore three essential questions for designing systems for poor and remote communities: How can we design effective user interfaces for audio content? What new community dynamics are emerging? And, how can we sustain user engagement?
Session C
A Wide-Open World of Social Networking
Monica Lam, Professor, Computer Science
Awaiting us all, out there in the social networking future, is an electronic wonder-world where users can interact wherever and whenever without having to join any single proprietary network. Such openness in all things electronic will spur technological innovation and competition – and, in turn, lead to better user control of data and greater privacy. Join Professor Monica Lam, director of MobiSocial – the Mobile-Social Computing Lab – as she demonstrates two of her lab's open-source social networking apps: Mr. Privacy, which uses email to create social networks; and DungBeetle, which uses mobile phones to build social networks through physical encounters.
Green Engineering 101
Mike Lepech, Assistant Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
In ways large and small, engineers are involved in the creation of nearly every product we use throughout our days — from our beds to our roads to our computers. Engineers are now leading the push to create greener products that will help us meet the sustainability challenges of the coming century and beyond. How will we succeed? Join Professor Mike Lepech for “Green Engineering 101: Building a Sustainable Planet” to learn about the impact green engineering can have on the planet and on our daily lives.
Synthetic Biology
Christina Smolke, Assistant Professor, Bioengineering
Recent advances in synthetic biology are revolutionizing treatment, prevention and diagnosis of disease. Breakthroughs include therapies that can detect and target diseased cells in the body and the development of microbial biofactories that are reshaping drug discovery and supply. Synthetic biology focuses on making bioengineering — the engineering of the building blocks of life — faster, cheaper and more effective. Join Assistant Professor of Bioengineering Christina Smolke for an intriguing discussion of recent advances in this fascinating field and their potential to spark a revolution in human health and medicine.
