Poster Competition Winners / Abstracts - Technology

Technology 1 - 1st Place
Homeless-less
By Julio Torres Santana, Cornell University

Three years ago I was introduced to a project to design a one person’s portable shelter that was easy to transport and offered some type of protection against the cold weather. After several sketches and analysis I came up with a concept that differed from any other design ever seen before by my instructors. The project had to be conceived under a $75 dollars budget; therefore I was encouraged to use material like unwanted pieces wood, traps, other materials found in dumpsters and etc.

Not long ego I put the shelter to the test by re-creating a new re-designed real scale model and tested it on myself. A comparison of temperatures between the inside and the outside of the shelter were made throughout different times one night to test if my hypothesis was correct. My poster will show the results of my studies, research, and interviews for homeless individual from New York City. Also, a Syracuse Post-standard article about the shelter will be visible in the poster, design drawings and more. Finally, I will talk about the materials and methods used to create this portable shelter for the homeless.

Technology 1 - 2nd Place
The Visualization of 2D Flow Regimes Through the Use of Soap Films
By Richard Linares, University at Buffalo

The physics of fluid motion and the transition from laminar to turbulence remains one of the unsolved problems in physics, making the investigation of fluidic phenomenon a hot topic. Fluids are difficult to study experimentally because of the difficulty in observing the inherent motion of fluids. This issue arises due to the fact that fluids are usually transparent or of uniform color and fluids have the tendency to develop in three dimensions meaning. Ample effort has gone into the study of fluid flow using more conventional wind tunnel and water tunnel experiments, but these cases are difficult to model and implement. The elimination of one flow direction (degree of freedom) simplifies the conditions and allows comparison to the simplified numerical computer model. This gives us a starting point to expand our understanding. The experimental method that we have adopted has unique physical properties that make running fluidic studies simple, cost efficient, self containing and easily visualized. Soap film brilliant flow visualization ability; coupled with their two dimensionality make soap films a formable tool for the study of fluids. Soap bubbles are very thin film, essentially a two dimensional surfaces, which when flowing behave as a two dimensional fluid. The primary goal of our experimental work is to construct a counter-flowing shear layer experiment through the use of soap films. Using soap films two dimensionality a temporal developing shear layer can be studied in detail.

Technology 2 - 1st Place
Noise Reduction of MR Brain Images Via the Use of Spatial and Frequency Filters
By Troy Johnson, College of Staten Island

The subject of image noise is quite a proverbial issue in the field of medical imaging. It is the result of pixel fluctuation in an image and usually occurs when light exposure on the subject being examined is at a minimum. This unwanted behavior appears as random speckles on a normally smooth image and gives it a grainy appearance.

Image noise isn’t exclusive to medical imaging but also affects digital cameras and is a grave concern to camera manufacturers. In photographs, noise appears as specks, pale areas of white or blotchy patches where there is normally a uniform graduation of shade. This outcome is usually created by electronic noise and low light conditions. Electronic noise in digital photography occurs during the process of converting light into digital numbers.

This project studies the effectiveness of spatial and frequency filtering in reducing noise in five brain images at various noise intensities. The usefullness of both filters are tested and analysed on the images via the use of algorithms. From the procedures it will be shown that the pixels which constitute images can be mathematically manipulated to reduce noise thereby refining an image’s appearance.

Technology 2 - 2nd Place
A System for Nano Fibers
By Beverly Theodore, SUNY Farmingdale

Electrospinning is a novel technique for producing fibers with nanoscale diameters from a wide range of materials. In this process, a strong electric field causes a viscous solution to form a cone, from which a thin fluid jet is formed. This fluid jet may harden by a variety of processes and become a continuous nanoscale fiber. The fiber is collected using a collector electrode. The nanofiber has a wide range of applications from medicine to textiles,

A team of Science and Technology students at SUNY-Farmingdale have utilized the principles of electrospinning and the concepts of general engineering to design and build a system for nanoscale production of fibers. This poster will present the details of the “home-built” nano fabrication system. It will present the unique aspects of the project and its wide application potentials.