As someone who benefited greatly from the encouragement she received to pursue studies in STEM, mechanical engineering senior Olivia Tyrrell wants other girls and women to also be inspired to go into STEM. Tyrrell grew up in Downers Grove, Ill. Though she always had an interest in science as a child, it was a visit …Continue reading “Undergraduate research experience launches ME student to NASA internship”
I E 413: Stochastic Modeling, Analysis and Simulation had a new twist this semester because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I E 413 is part of the industrial and manufacturing systems engineering (IMSE) department’s operations research curriculum and the course focuses on modeling uncertainty, covering the basic concepts of stochastic processes, queueing theory and discrete-event simulation. …Continue reading “IE course challenges students to consider COVID-19 when modeling and simulating”
Industrial engineering (IE) graduate student Saba Moeinizade did not know what to expect when the student poster competition for the INFORMS annual meeting was made virtual. She certainly was not expecting a podium finish, so she was pleasantly surprised when the judges awarded second place to her entry. Her presentation – “A Simulation-based Optimization Approach …Continue reading “IE graduate student takes 2nd place at national poster competition”
As the damaging effects of climate change become more apparent, researchers are studying ways to generate energy with minimal impact on the environment. Computer simulations could be the key to making this process more efficient. Shankar Subramaniam, a professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University (ISU), is the principal investigator (PI) on a project …Continue reading “Using computer simulations to improve clean energy generation”
Software designed for developing video games could enhance the speed and accuracy of particulate flow simulations.
A recent Forbes article focused on the impact that virtual reality (VR) has on training forklift operators features research by IMSE Associate Professor Rick Stone. The article cites Stone’s study of welding VR simulations which found a 41.6% increase in certifications and a 23% decrease in overall training time. “VR and AR technology has amazing …Continue reading “IMSE professor’s research featured in Forbes”
The U.S. Marine Forces Reserve (MFR) is headquartered in New Orleans, LA, which is an area prone to hurricanes. During the event of a hurricane warning, the commander must make timely decisions to protect the safety of the personnel and set up alternate headquarters in order to facilitate an orderly evacuation. An assistant professor from …Continue reading “IMSE’s MacKenzie creates Hurricane Decision Simulator to assist Marines with decision making”
Being able to feed the world is a monumental undertaking, but Dirk Maier, a professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, is utilizing computer simulations and inexpensive drying and storage technologies to help smallholder farmers save more of their harvests.
Last year, Iowa State’s Virtual Reality Applications Center launched a virtual simulation of the International Space Station (ISS) and its use in testing how humans make decisions in stressful situations. The research team has since developed an exterior ISS simulator used to explore activities done outside a spacecraft, such as spacewalks, and recently released a …Continue reading “Guest post: A voyage to space and beyond”
Christopher Karstens was on the ground studying the damage caused by the deadly April 27, 2011, tornado that hit Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Ala. It was just a week after the tornado. He was between the two cities, in the rough country of the southern Appalachians about 20 miles northeast of Tuscaloosa. He said it’s terrain …Continue reading “Iowa State researchers find, test winds extending far away from Alabama tornado’s path”
The Center for Transportation Research and Education (CTRE) at the Institute for Transportation (InTrans) is helping to make the roads safer with the “MiniCym,” a quarter-cab driver simulator. “This is a tool that will help us explore new areas of researched related to road safety and human factors,” said Shashi Nambisan, professor of civil, construction …Continue reading “Portable simulator helps to create safer driving experience”
David Grewell flipped on the augers that carry corn from a truck to a biorefinery. Then, with a few more clicks of his computer mouse, he turned on the pumps that send grain all the way through an ethanol plant, from storage to hammer mill to slurry tanks to jet cooker to liquefaction, fermentation, distillation, …Continue reading “Learn to run a biorefinery in a virtual control room developed by Iowa State researchers”
