February 26, 2018

Dear members of the Hajim School community,

The Trump administration’s proposal to phase out the Laboratory for Laser Energetics over the next three years came as a shock to many of us. But it needs to be kept in perspective. This is part of the President’s proposed budget. As Richard Feldman, our interim president designate, noted in his statement, the LLE has enjoyed historic, strong bipartisan support from the New York Congressional delegation, the State of New York, and the U.S. Congress, which “recognizes the significant contributions the LLE makes to national and economic security, as well as the strategic work being done that can lead to an independent energy future.”

Here are a couple of recent examples of the exciting research occurring at the LLE:

Can water be simultaneously solid and liquid? Yes, when it is squeezed between two pieces of diamond at 360,000 pounds per square inch, then blasted by a pulse of laser light at the Omega facility at LLE. “The ‘superionic water’ state is quite exotic, where the oxygen atoms are fixed in a crystalline lattice through which protons move like a quantum-fluid,” says Gilbert ‘Rip’ Collins, professor of mechanical engineering and of physics and astronomy, and head of LLE’s High Energy Density Physics program. Rip and Ryan Rygg, a research assistant professor of mechanical engineering and an LLE scientist, were coauthors of the study with researchers at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and UC-Berkeley. Though superionic water is not known to exist on Earth, it may be abundant on Neptune and Uranus and on icy planets around other stars.

An international group of scientists recently demonstrated the existence of a phenomenon called “turbulent dynamo” through a series of experiments carried out on the OMEGA laser. The group’s findings, reported in an article in Nature Communications, help explain how tiny, primordial “seed” magnetic fields grow to astronomical proportions. “Studying turbulent dynamo can help us understand how the universe was formed and how energy is partitioned within the universe,” says Dustin Froula, an LLE senior scientist and assistant professor of physics and astronomy. Read more here.

Our University’s Office of Government and Community Relations is actively engaged with our Congressional delegation regarding LLE and will be closely monitoring the upcoming budget negotiations. Stay tuned for further updates.

When our University Communications team wanted to illustrate opportunities for inter- and multidisciplinary study and research at our University, they found some great examples involving Hajim School students and faculty members. Eva Hansen ’18 of biomedical engineering described how a cluster she completed in public health helped amplify her major and her experiences providing clean water for a school in the Dominican Republic, with Engineers Without Borders. This has helped her qualify for the Grand Challenges Scholars program.

The team also wrote about some exciting research collaborations that are part of our University’s AR/VR initiative. For example:

Zhiyao Duan, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Ming-Lun Lee, an assistant professor of audio and music engineering, are working with Matthew Brown, a professor of music theory at the Eastman School, on improving the quality of sound in VR videos. They are placing microphones and cameras over, around, and within Eastman ensembles as they practice and perform, to give viewers a truly “visceral” experience of music.
Jiebo Luo, professor of computer science, is working with Michael Hasselberg, an assistant professor of psychiatry; Wendi Cross, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry, and Matthew Brown on an immersive computerized app to increase community access to cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Andrew White, assistant professor of chemical engineering, is working with April Luehmann, an associate professor at the Warner School, and Brendan Mort, director of the Center for Integrated Research Computing, on an amazing augmented reality tabletop teaching tool, that enables students to simulate chemical reactions comparable to what happens in a chemical plant. Special kudos to PhD student Rainier Barrett, who built the table from scratch, and to grad student Heta Gandhi who helped Rainier do the coding.

Click here to see the entire Intersections package, which also includes stories we’ve previously mentioned about Ivan Suminski’s dual major in violin performance and mechanical engineering, and the work Andrew Berger and Jim Zavislan are doing in collaboration with the Susan B. Anthony Center to help improve the detection of bruising in victims of domestic abuse.

Attention all Hajim School faculty members: The deadline to apply for a Sykes Faculty Engineering Award for 2018-19 is March 8. These awards, ranging from $2,500 to $30,000, can be used to develop an innovative curricular course or program for engineering students, with a particular emphasis on first- and second-year student programs. Include details on program content, budget and budget justification, and the benefit for Hajim School students. Send to Tim Woodward, director of finance and administration, at tim.woodward@rochester.edu. Call Tim at (585) 273-1547 if you have any questions.

Worth noting from the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship:

Applications for the Finger Lakes Region of the New York Business Plan Competition must be submitted online by 11:59 p.m. Sunday, March 12. Student teams are invited to submit a business idea in one of six categories: advanced technology, clean technology, information technology/software (including mobile apps), products, services, and social entrepreneurship/non-profit. Contact Matthew Spielmann with questions.
The Kauffman Entrepreneurial Year (KEY), now the e5 program, offers selected students a fifth, tuition-free year of college to launch a project and engage in an experiential pursuit. Contact Angela Buchiere to learn more or attend an information session Thursday, March 1, 3:30 to 4:30 p.m., Lattimore 306A. The spring application deadline is Thursday, March 22. Apply to e5 online.
The Ain Center continues its Entrepreneurs-in-Residence program, with Kathryn Cartini, CMO of Upstate Venture Connect and CEO of Peacock Media, holding office hours on Tuesday, March 6, from 1 to 4:30 p.m. Book an appointment online, or call (585) 276-3500.

Have a great week!

Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman