Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has launched its Neutron Nexus pilot program with Florida A&M University (FAMU) and Florida State University (FSU) through the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. It is the first program of its kind nationwide.

The Nexus is aimed at broadening and diversifying the scientific user community with outreach to universities and colleges to increase collaboration and, ultimately, scientific advancement.

Although a recently planned two-day ORNL Days event at the college’s campus was cut short due to Hurricane Helene, the presentations and networking that did happen set the stage to carry out the joint vision of the initiative for ORNL’s Neutron Sciences Directorate and host institutions.

“It’s exciting to expand our reach to strengthen already existing relationships, as we have had with FSU and FAMU, and create new partnerships we hope will continue for many years,” said Jens Dilling, associate laboratory director for Neutron Sciences at ORNL. “This is all to the benefit of ORNL, our university collaborators and, most importantly, to the benefit of science. We are thrilled to bring the wonder of neutrons to a new generation of undergraduate and graduate students and help faculty grow their science and technology impact.”

The goals of the ORNL Neutron Nexus program are to foster professional and personal relationships, widen neutron science educational opportunities, organize in-person visits to ORNL for students and faculty, organize on-site presence for remote experiments, increase engagement for technical and scientific support, and set up physical space commitments between ORNL and a regional collection of colleges and universities, including Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), community colleges, and technical colleges.

A planned Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the joint college is part of the inaugural Neutron Nexus, as ORNL “brings neutrons” to northern Florida, enabling new users to leverage cutting-edge neutron scattering and imaging capabilities to transform their research.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a powerhouse in scientific research, and this partnership strengthens the joint college’s ability to lead in engineering innovation, said FSU President Richard McCullough.

“We’re investing significantly in recruiting tenure-track and research faculty to build this materials science and engineering department,” McCullough said. “Their expertise will elevate our research, teaching, and ability to shape the future. It’s certainly an honor to be one of Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s core university partners and to be part of Oak Ridge Associated Universities.”

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Graduate students in the joint college’s systems engineering master’s program can now graduate with valuable INCOSE certification

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If you have ever faced the daunting decision of whether to undergo surgery, you likely had several questions. Among the myriad considerations were likely questions about the skill and experience of the person holding the knife.

New research from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering could help give surgeons better training for their crucial work. The Google endowed dean of the college, Suvranu De, led the development of an AI-powered tool that helps to train surgeons by analyzing video of their surgical technique and providing feedback. The research was recently published in JAMA Surgery.

“The more training and feedback surgeons-in-training receive, the more their skills will improve,” De said. “We have established a cutting-edge video-based assessment network (VBA-Net) that is a major step in the direction of automating the evaluation of surgical skills effectively. This system uses state-of-the-art deep learning models for formative and summative evaluations that foster skill development.”

VBA-Net is an AI model that learns to distinguish between experts and novices by watching full-length videos of real surgical tasks. It provides the learner with final scores and online feedback. It automates the task of surgical skill assessment, which is currently performed by trained proctors.

The platform merges deep neural network (DNN) technology with existing video-based surgical assessment to deliver real-time feedback for aspiring surgeons. Deep neural networks are a form of artificial intelligence that mirror the intricacies of the human brain and aid in tailoring the learning process to individual interests, enhancing the relevance of recommendations.

“This tool can offer valuable support to evaluators and has the potential to ensure greater consistency in assessments,” De said. “Our objective is to streamline the evaluation process by guiding trainees in their focus to the most critical facets of a surgical procedure.”

The DNN technology incorporates Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI), a type of AI that enables humans to better comprehend the otherwise opaque inner workings of the network. It gives users trust in the outcomes and outputs produced by machine learning algorithms. The technology demands minimal hardware and a standard camera setup.

De’s research will help meet an American Board of Surgery’s initiative to incorporate video-based assessment (VBA) into training surgeons and affiliated operating personnel. The group launched an inaugural pilot program to standardize VBA in 2021. De’s pioneering vision takes AI and correlates it directly to VBA.

“We hope the insights from this research can pave the way for integrating this technology in training and credentialing programs in the next five to ten years,” De said. “Our ultimate aspiration is to enhance patient outcomes, save lives and cultivate more well-trained surgeons in the future.”

De collaborated on this study with Erim Yanik, a postdoctoral researcher at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, and Dr. Steven Schwaitzberg, chair of surgery at the Jacob’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo.

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Leadership from 12 engineering schools across Florida convened at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering last week for the inaugural Florida Engineering Dean’s Summit, an opportunity for the state’s engineering educators to explore solutions for shared problems and potential collaborations.

“We have so much potential in this state for innovation and economic impact through engineering, we believe that with this many great institutions coming together and working together, something tremendous is bound to come out of it,” said Suvranu De, dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, the joint engineering school of Florida A&M University and Florida State University.

Attendees at the two-day summit discussed college leadership structure, support for large-scale public-private partnerships, undergraduate student success, faculty development, workforce development programs, online degree programs and other topics.

Deans also toured the engineering research labs in Tallahassee’s Innovation Park, which are closely associated with the joint college, including the FSU-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, the only national laboratory in the state of Florida funded by the National Science Foundation.

“This is a time for me and my fellow deans to forge stronger relationships and build a clearer understanding of the challenges we face every day,” De said. “While we have engineering schools from across the higher ed spectrum, to some extent we all operate in similar environments and face the same challenges in developing the engineers of tomorrow.”

Participants came from:
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Florida Atlantic University, College of Engineering & Computer Science
Florida International University, College of Engineering and Computing
Florida Gulf Coast University, U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering
Florida Polytechnic University, College of Engineering
Florida Institute of Technology, College of Engineering and Science
University of Central Florida, College of Engineering & Computer Science
University of Florida, Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
University of Miami, College of Engineering
University of North Florida, School of Engineering
University of South Florida, College of Engineering

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To provide the best care for injured service members, combat medics need reliable tools. To develop better tools, they call upon engineers.

Suvranu De, dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, is leading a five-year, $1.3 million cooperative research agreement with the U.S. Army that will use ultrasound and artificial intelligence to investigate the characteristics and healing trajectory of burn wounds, leading to faster diagnosis and improved recovery.

The earlier physicians can diagnose the severity of burn wounds, the faster they can apply the best treatment for patients. The challenge for doctors is that traditional diagnostic techniques don’t give accurate measurements until about three weeks after the injury.

The researchers will use artificial intelligence to analyze the data collected with ultrasound. Analysis with deep learning technology can improve accuracy rates for burn thickness to more than 95%, De said.

“This gives non-expert field medics a massively helpful tool,” he said. “In the battlefield, they need to rapidly decide on a treatment paradigm. Do they apply medication, or do they recommend surgery preemptively? That’s a big decision.”

He will also develop standards for high-fidelity simulators for burn wound management,  allowing the military to use potential future innovations from private companies in ready-to-use applications.

The work is a continuation of a previous research agreement in which De led a team that focused on burn thickness. Now he will focus on how burn wounds heal over time.

“That is my goal: Can I not only detect wound depth, but also predict how and when it is going to heal?” he said.

Second-degree burn wounds can be classified by their depth. Superficial wounds typically heal with non-invasive therapies, such as ointments. But deeper burns require surgery.

Visual examinations provide limited information for doctors who need to decide on a course of treatment. Laser Doppler imaging gives accurate readings, but those machines are costly and rare in hospitals.

Ultrasound machines, in contrast, are widespread. De and his team will develop their technique with B-mode ultrasound, which is already widely used for monitoring pregnancies, echocardiogram scans of the heart and other common procedures. Portable devices that could be used at forward operating bases in the military use the same technology.

The researchers from FSU will work closely with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command – Soldier Center (DEVCOM SC) in Orlando in this project.

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Surgery can be a life-or-death procedure. With the stakes so high, practice is crucial. Simulators allow surgeons to gain experience before working with patients.

Suvranu De, dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, is building a better simulator — one that uses brain stimulation to improve learning for physicians undergoing training for robotic surgeries for oral cancers. The work is funded by a four-year, $2.3 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, part of the National Institutes of Health.

“We’ve always been taught to learn by doing,” De said. “What if we could use technology to accelerate learning? Learning happens in the brain. For a task such as this, it’s about neurons in the cortical regions of the brain being attuned to what you’re doing. We think we can stimulate those neurons in the brain with electric current to help surgeons learn faster and reduce errors.”

Physicians training on the simulator will wear a cap that delivers low electric current to the parts of the brain involved in learning a complex fine motor task such as robotic surgery. The idea is that stimulating those parts of the brain will increase the excitability of the underlying neurons, accelerating learning.

The goal is to develop a simulator that takes advantage of the brain’s neural plasticity to function as a better teacher than existing methods. That would be a benefit for surgical residents, who have limited time to learn the skills they need to deliver high-quality service to patients. It could also help surgeons who need practice with certain procedures to maintain their skills.

Along with adding brain stimulation to surgical training, De will break new ground on this project by developing a simulator for transoral robotic surgery, or TORS, a minimally invasive technique for treating cancers in the pharynx and larynx in addition to obstructive sleep apnea.

After developing the simulator and accompanying brain stimulation technology, researchers will test its effectiveness. One group of surgeons-in-training will receive stimulation during the training while a second group will undergo a sham stimulation. By comparing learning between the groups, De and colleagues will determine if the stimulation is an effective enhancer for surgical performance.

Technology that replicates the visual, touch and motion sensations of a real procedure will offer a platform for practice where mistakes don’t carry the heavy consequences of an operating room. Creating the equipment to mimic that environment is an engineering challenge that De and colleagues look forward to.

“If you’re looking at the health care environment, I think there are plenty of problems that engineers can understand and work shoulder-to-shoulder with clinicians to create a solution,” De said. “It is very fulfilling to know that the things that we are doing are helping the field go forward and enhancing patient safety.”

De will work with computer scientists from Florida Polytechnic University and surgeons and neuroscientists from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, on this project.

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At the atomic and subatomic scales of matter, classical laws of nature lose control and quantum mechanics take over. Discoveries of new quantum phenomena and materials, such as quantum entanglement and topological systems, promise to deliver groundbreaking technologies. New extremely efficient quantum computers and communications and cryptography technologies are among a few of the future applications that could revolutionize the world.

Florida State University will dedicate more than $20 million to quantum science and engineering over the next three years, funding that will support hiring at least eight new faculty members, equipment and dedicated space in the university’s Interdisciplinary Research and Commercialization Building, and seed money for a new program focused on this emerging field. FSU President Richard McCullough announced the investments at the first day of the university’s Quantum Science and Engineering Symposium last week.

“It’s clear from the research being presented here that FSU is uniquely positioned to be a leader in what is now being heralded as the second quantum revolution,” McCullough said. “We have the drive and the desire to expand our existing efforts so that we can be on the forefront of research in this area of critical national and global importance.”

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A chemical engineer developing more environmentally friendly materials and a geologist exploring the chemistry of Earth’s carbon reservoirs are the latest Florida State University faculty members to be named Fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS.

Rufina Alamo, the Simon Ostrach Professor of Engineering and a distinguished research professor of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, and Rob Spencer, a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science in FSU’s College of Arts and Sciences, were elected by their peers to the 2022 Fellows class in recognition of their contributions to science, engineering and technology.

“Selection as an AAAS fellow is recognition of outstanding contribution to science and research,” said Vice President for Research Stacey Patterson, “As we grow our research and innovation ecosystem, it’s wonderful to see FSU faculty honored by their peers in this way.”

The 2022 Fellows include more than 500 researchers from academia and industry whose work spans the sciences.

AAAS, formed in 1848, was the first permanent organization established to promote the development of science and engineering at a national level and represent the interests of all its disciplines. The organization is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science. Election as an AAAS Fellow is a lifetime honor and all Fellows are expected to meet the highest standards of professional ethics and scientific integrity.

This year’s FSU honorees are:

Rufina Alamo
Alamo researches polymers, natural or manmade materials made of many small molecules linked together to form very long ones, like the beads of a necklace. Her work has focused on crystalline polymers, in which long molecule chains fold back and forth many times to form regular arrangements, instead of haphazard, amorphous shapes. AAAS recognized Alamo for contributions to this field, particularly for experiments that established the relationship between the chemical structures and properties in two types — classical polyolefins of which we use millions of tons around the world and newer, more sustainable polyethylene-like materials.

“I am very grateful to AAAS for electing me as a Fellow and to my research colleagues who I have had the privilege to work alongside,” Alamo said. “It’s gratifying to be recognized by my peers as having made substantial contributions in the effort to better understand polymeric materials.”

Before coming to the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering in 1995, Alamo earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the University of Valladolid and a doctoral degree from the Complutense University of Madrid. She was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2012, and recently received a Research Creativity Award from the National Science Foundation.

Recent research by Alamo is helping develop sustainable polymers that offer environmentally friendly alternatives to oil-based ones. Synthetic polymers make possible all sorts of technology, such as food packaging, moisture-wicking clothes, fiberglass, nonstick cookware and much, much more. But most synthetic polymers are developed from petroleum, and they’re not biodegradable.

“We all know that single-use plastics, such as plastic bags, plastic wrapping, beverage bottles and cups and many other types remain too long in our environment when they are discarded,” Alamo said. “Together with polymer chemists, we are developing the molecules and the processes to fabricate more bio-renewable, degradable and environmentally friendly polymer materials that could substitute those that we use now.”

Another recent project, funded by the National Science Foundation, explores the most effective ways to melt polymers in order to process them faster or to make them into stronger forms.

“I’m pleased to congratulate Rufina on this award,” said Suvranu De, dean of the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. “Her research has led to important advances in polymer science, work that helps improve our modern world.”

Robert Spencer
Spencer’s research focuses on understanding the chemical composition of the Earth’s major carbon reservoirs — the soils, sediments and dissolved organic matter in marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Those reservoirs can act as sinks for carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere or they can be sources of additional carbon dioxide. Spencer seeks to understand why and how reservoirs act in either way.

“Fundamentally, my research group aims to better understand the global carbon cycle and how human impacts such as climate change and land-use change are altering it,” he said.

The work takes place across a range of scales, from the molecular to global level, and in all sorts of environments, from the Arctic to the tropics. Recent research has investigated the importance of Earth’s ice sheets, the changing Arctic, and the effects of the La Niña phenomenon on carbon export from the Amazon River.

“Being elected as an AAAS Fellow is naturally a great honor and I’m sincerely grateful to all my colleagues and collaborators throughout the world and the support I’ve received here at FSU,” Spencer said. “Without that, the research we undertake would not be possible.”

Before joining FSU, Spencer earned a bachelor’s degree and doctoral degree from Newcastle University and worked as a researcher at the University of California, Davis, and Woods Hole Research Center. He was named a Fellow of the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography in 2017 and awarded their Yentsch-Schindler Award in 2019.

“This richly deserved award is a testament to Rob’s research and mentorship,” said Sam Huckaba, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “With it he joins a distinguished family of previous Arts and Sciences AAAS Fellows. Whether he is working here in Tallahassee or at remote field sites around the world, Rob’s active program is improving our understanding of Earth science.”

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