Interdisciplinary research in the Purdue Polytechnic Institute uses a socio-technical approach to pursue one goal from many angles and create significant impact on global grand challenges. A unique, collaborative research style within Purdue Polytechnic is on the rise, with Research Impact Areas leading the way. From automation and process control, innovative training and learning, and safety and security in the cyber and physical worlds, integrated Polytechnic research teams focus on three key areas:
- Realizing the Digital Enterprise
- Future Work and Learning
- Holistic Safety and Security
Continue reading to learn about innovative research projects under way within each Research Impact Area.
Realizing the Digital Enterprise
Richard Voyles, professor of electrical and computer engineering technology and head of the Collaborative Robotics Lab, and Bedrich Benes, professor of computer graphics technology, are collaborating with Karthik Ramani, the Donald W. Feddersen Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and six other faculty members on a project to create 3D-printed objects infused with sensing, computation and actuation abilities. The research could lead to the creation of a “smart product printer” that combines the printing of a structure with the printing of electronics, sensing and other functions.
Yingjie “Victor” Chen, associate professor of computer graphics technology, and his research team are developing a new technique that could make visualization of big spatial data sets easier and more concise. Conventional techniques like heat maps, which represent data graphically as a matrix of colors, can make it nearly impossible to categorize and compare data when many different types of objects are involved, such as planning resources for a city or tracking enemy locations for military strategy. The Purdue visualization technique uses a specially designed algorithm that incorporates information about thickness, density and boundaries tied to data points. Objects can be grouped by type or time, allowing users to see changes in distributions over time. The technique could be used to study nature phenomena, track political affiliations within a geographic region and many other areas where data can help in comparison and future planning.
Gozdem Kilaz, assistant professor of engineering technology and director of Purdue’s Fuel Laboratory of Renewable Energy (FLORE), is leading efforts to optimize a new chemical conversion process for the production of aviation biofuel from plastic waste. The FLORE team is cataloging specific properties of polyolefin waste products and working to ensure the correlations between the products’ chemistry and properties are more thoroughly understood. Improved understanding of the waste products’ chemical properties could help ready them for conversion in into jet fuel.
Future Work and Learning
Adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ), a relatively new assessment approach designed for assessing solutions to open-ended problems, has demonstrated potential for improving reliability in the evaluation of student design work in engineering and technology design settings. Scott Bartholomew, assistant professor of technology leadership and innovation, and Esteban Garcia-Bravo, assistant professor of computer graphics technology, are researching how to incorporate ACJ in graphic design education, determining the best time to incorporate it in the learning progression.
Alejandra Magana, professor of computer and information technology, is researching the creation of virtual spaces in which learners can be immersed together and nurtured into learning via wearable technology such as glasses, haptics and sensors. These virtual spaces would become authentic environments in which to observe, feel, simulate and experiment under the guidance of a personal skilled tutor. Magana hopes the research will lead to inclusive and personalized adaptive learning environments at scale.
Holistic Safety and Security
An all-in-one cybersecurity toolkit developed by Kathryn Seigfried-Spellar, assistant professor of computer and information technology, John Springer and Baijian Yang, associate professors of computer and information technology, Marcus Rogers, professor of computer and information technology, and others is helping detectives dust for digital fingerprints. The Toolkit for Selective Analysis & Reconstruction of Files (FileTSAR) combines the top open source investigative tools used by digital forensic law enforcement teams at the local, state, national and global levels. It captures data flows and provides a mechanism to selectively reconstruct multiple data types, including documents, images, email and VoIP sessions for large-scale computer networks. FileTSAR is available free to law enforcement.
Rogers is also working with Fahad Salamh, a doctoral researcher, and Umit Karabiyik, assistant professor of computer and information technology, to make the cloud a poor place to hide digital evidence of crimes like child exploitation, illegal drug trafficking and illegal firearm transactions. They have developed a cloud forensic model using machine learning to collect digital evidence related to illegal activities on cloud storage applications like Dropbox and Google Drive.
Additional information:
- Learn more about the Polytechnic Institute’s Research Impact Areas
- Realizing the Digital Enterprise
- Future Work and Learning
- Holistic Safety and Security
- “Terminator 2” inspires collaborative research on “smart product printer”
- Patented visualization technique simplifies, improves tracking of spatial data sets
- Researchers explore converting plastic waste into clean fuels, other useful products
- FileTSAR cyber toolkit helps detectives solve digital crimes
- CIT researchers develop system to detect cloud-based cybercrime evidence