The School of Engineering’s 2024 Hazeltine Innovation Awards, grants to underwrite early-stage faculty research projects with the potential to attract external funding and create a lasting broadbased impact, have been awarded to principal investigators Kareen Coulombe, Robert Hurt, Louise Manfredi, Daniel Mittleman and Domenico Pacifici and Alexander Zavslavsky.
The awards, established in 2023 and presented annually, aim to spur bold and innovative research that is transformative, impactful, and has the potential to significantly advance a field; to lead to creative and revolutionary approaches to STEM education and/or development of a diverse and inclusive workforce; or catalyze new knowledge and discoveries through purchasing or development of new instrumentation or equipment. The goal is to enable faculty and their student researchers in the most exciting and important areas of innovation and discovery.
The Hazeltine Innovation Awards were established by alumnus Aneel Bhusri ’88 and named after Engineering’s beloved professor emeritus Barrett Hazeltine, who joined the Brown faculty in 1959 and is best known for his classes in management and entrepreneurship that have helped to launch countless careers in business and nonprofit leadership. “ENGN9: Management of Industrial and Nonprofit Organizations,” which Hazeltine has taught for more than 40 years, remains one of the most popular courses at the University.
The following one-year projects were accepted for funding this year:
Engineered Purkinje Bundles for Pediatric Cardiac Conduction Block Repair (Principal Investigator Kareen Coulombe, Co-Investigator Bum-Rak Choi and Clinical Consultant Elizabeth Blume, M.D.)
Congenital heart defects often require surgical intervention to correct blood flow in the heart, but kids may perpetually suffer from poorly coordinated electrical activation of the heart due to a damaged or absent conduction system. While pacemakers can be implanted, the complications and device failures negatively impact quality of life for growing kids. This project aims to develop and test a first-in-class cell therapy for engineering the cardiac conduction system in hearts where conduction between the upper and lower chambers is missing, called atrioventricular (AV) block. Objectives of this work include biomanufacturing a tissue-engineered cellular bundle (Purkinje bundles) from human induced pluripotent stem cells and evaluating the efficacy of these bundles in a preclinical model of cardiac AV block. The potential impact of this research is profound for pediatric interventional cardiology, as no therapies exist to restore biological function of the cardiac conduction system, which is the stimulus for cardiac contraction.
Transformation of Recycled Battery Graphite to Monolayer Graphene Oxide (Principal Investigator Robert Hurt, Co-Investigator Brian Sheldon)
This project seeks to develop a method to transform spent lithium battery graphite into atomically-thin graphene oxide nanosheets as a "second-life" carbon material. Graphene oxide in its monolayer form is a high-value second-life target because it already serves as a flexible starting platform material for myriad graphene-based technologies ranging from printable inks, protective coatings, to composites. Currently, both graphene oxide and Li-ion batteries rely on virgin natural graphite as the feedstock, which is no longer mined in the United States and is listed by the DOE as a critical mineral. Our scientific hypothesis is that previous attempts to create graphene oxide from spent battery graphite have been unsuccessful due to the presence of residual organic materials (anode binders, electrolyte, amorphous carbon) that suppress the critical final exfoliation step needed to liberate the atomically thin sheets. The Hurt and Sheldon groups with their respective expertise in graphene synthesis and lithium battery materials plan a one-year project to (i) acquire and artificially age commercial batteries and reference materials, (ii) design and evaluate targeted pre-processing steps based on selective partial oxidation, (iii) synthesize graphene oxide from recovered anode graphite, (iv) characterize the morphology and chemistry of the products using state-of-the-art spectroscopic and imaging methods, and (v) demonstrate application of the new products in several graphene-based technologies under ongoing development in the Brown laboratories. If successful, this project would lead to a patent disclosure and a proposal for external funding to further develop this new sustainable synthesis route that exploits end-of-life Li-ion batteries as a rapidly growing waste stream of high national and societal importance.
Data-driven Sustainability in Fabrication: Reframing the Industrial Ecology of the Brown Design Workshop (Principal Investigator Louise Manfredi, Co-Investigator Rich Morales).
In response to the growing urgency to address climate change and foster sustainability literacy, the integration of circular economy principles within educational settings has become paramount. This study delves into the significance of informal sustainability education as testbed for knowledge dissemination and solution co-development. The research centers around the Brown Design Workshop (BDW). The proposal is a multifaceted approach focusing on three key areas: 3D printing and material recycling, design for non-destructive disassembly in woodworking, and the development of a novel tracking system for multi-material projects. By leveraging smart systems and IoT technologies, the study aims to gather continuous data for long-term sustainability tracking and life cycle assessment reporting. The novelty of this research lies in its ambition to develop optimal sustainability metrics within a dynamic and ever-evolving makerspace environment. By focusing on material circularity and value stream mapping, the study aims to contribute valuable insights to the literature while setting a standard for sustainable practices in other production areas.
Understanding Hydrogen Storage in Porous Materials (Principal Investigator Daniel Mittleman).
Porous materials such as clathrates and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show great promise in a variety of important applications including hydrogen storage for alternative fuel systems. Yet, their use is hindered by a lack of understanding of the reaction coordinates associated with the gas capture reaction. The relevant dynamical processes lie in the low-frequency regime, generally below 200 cm−1, known as the terahertz range. This spectral region is difficult to access, especially when samples must be studied in situ under hydrostatic pressure, as is required for studying pressure-induced reactions. This research project will fill this critical knowledge gap, exploiting a unique capability recently developed at Brown for performing terahertz spectroscopy at high pressure. Combining experimental results with state-of-the art numerical simulations, we will identify and characterize the normal modes that mediate gas adsorption processes in two prototype porous media. These results have the potential for transformative impact, as this new understanding of the relevant molecular dynamics will inform the rational design of new materials optimized for specific gas storage needs. This work will establish terahertz spectroscopy as an invaluable tool for probing the structure function relationship in porous macromolecular systems.
Room-temperature Broadband (Visible to Near-infared) CMOS-compatible Quantum Dot Photodetectors (Principal Investigators Domenico Pacifici and Alexander Zaslavsky).
As transistor-based silicon technology advances, the integration of various types of sensors directly on top of integrated circuits will broaden their reach beyond the standard computation at which silicon already excels. Numerous applications involving optical functionality require high-speed, high-efficiency photo detectors that are amenable to hybrid integration with silicon CMOS. Commercial photodetectors based on single-bandgap materials, such as Si and Ge, provide absorption over a narrow wavelength range, which hampers their use for broadband (visible to near-infrared) applications. The two-PI team from Brown has demonstrated Ge quantum dot (QD)-based single-pixel photodetectors spanning the visible and the near-IR (0.4 < l < 1.7 μm) wavelength range, with higher responsivity (> 1 A/W) than commercial photodetectors while retaining comparable response time (~10 ns). However, to attract real industrial interest, demonstration of the hybrid integration of broadband QD photodetectors on an SiO2-covered substrate comparable to that of a prefabricated CMOS chip is needed. Only then will the technology become amenable to large-area multipixel imaging arrays that are technologically relevant.