Su Receives NSF Grant
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Assistant Professor Haijun Su has been awarded a three-year grant of over $300,000 to develop a set of tools for designing high precision flexure mechanisms. The award is funded through the National Science Foundation's Division of Civil, Mechanical, and Manufacturing Innovation. The goal of the research is to speed up the innovative design process and shorten the research and development cycle of devices such as nanopositioners, nanomanipulators, and MEMS scanning mirrors.
According to the research abstsract, "flexure mechanisms are the central part of numerous precision machinery that are used in a wide range of science and engineering applications. Since the current approaches are inadequate for designing these kinds of machines, this project aims to develop kinematic and mechanism theories and computational tools that analyze complex flexure mechanisms and synthesize ones for prescribed design requirements. The valuable practical design experience from engineers will be fully exploited via a digital catalogue of commonly used flexure elements, joints and building blocks that will be carefully designed and analyzed. These theories, tools and design catalogue will be integrated into a dedicated computer-aided design program with advanced human-computer-interfaces."
Devices such as nanopositioners, nanomanipulators, and MEMS scanning mirrors further enable scientists in a wide range of fields such as biology, nanotechnology, and astronomy to explore the unknown world more efficiently. Su expects to bring the research results into undergraduate and graduate curriculum, in hopes of further educating the next generation precision engineers with this innovative design tool. He expects to disseminate the research results to industry, academia and general public by distributing flexure design software and the design catalogue; interacting with scientists in national labs; and organizing workshops at national and international conferences. He and his team of researchers also plan to develop a summer camp and interactive virtual reality demonstration programs to outreach k-12, pre-freshman and women students.
Su is also a Co-PI on another recently announced NSF awarded research project entitled Design of DNA Origami Machines and Mechanisms; and earlier this year, he received an Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant to design compliant mechanisms for flapping wing micro air vehicles. Su directs the Design Innovation and Simulation Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University.
The details of this NSF-funded research may be viewed at http://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1161841.
Devices such as nanopositioners, nanomanipulators, and MEMS scanning mirrors further enable scientists in a wide range of fields such as biology, nanotechnology, and astronomy to explore the unknown world more efficiently. Su expects to bring the research results into undergraduate and graduate curriculum, in hopes of further educating the next generation precision engineers with this innovative design tool. He expects to disseminate the research results to industry, academia and general public by distributing flexure design software and the design catalogue; interacting with scientists in national labs; and organizing workshops at national and international conferences. He and his team of researchers also plan to develop a summer camp and interactive virtual reality demonstration programs to outreach k-12, pre-freshman and women students.
Su is also a Co-PI on another recently announced NSF awarded research project entitled Design of DNA Origami Machines and Mechanisms; and earlier this year, he received an Air Force Office of Scientific Research grant to design compliant mechanisms for flapping wing micro air vehicles. Su directs the Design Innovation and Simulation Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University.
The details of this NSF-funded research may be viewed at http://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1161841.
Category: Faculty
