Fall 2009
Possible Graduate Student Research Assistantships
Research Assistant: Experimental Study of Stability Limits for Slender Wind Turbine Blades. This is a Master’s or PhD level study on various instabilities observed in wind turbine blades mainly stall induced instability and flutter. The work will be mainly experimental, but some theoretical aspects will also be involved. Students with knowledge and/or interest in dynamics, vibrations or fluid-structure interactions are preferred. Contact: Yahya Modarres-Sadeghi, modarres 'at' mit.edu
Research Assistant: Nonlinear Dynamics of Flexible Structures in Flow. This is a general topic for a few projects in Master’s or PhD level on behavior of flexible structures subjected to flow. These projects involve both theoretical and experimental work on systems showing vortex induced vibrations, flutter or chaotic oscillations. Students with knowledge and/or interest in dynamics, vibrations or fluid-structure interactions are preferred. Contact: Yahya Modarres-Sadeghi, modarres 'at' mit.edu
Research Assistant: Energy Technology Policy in the Face of Climate Change. Pursue a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research. Funded by NSF. Research entails mathematical modeling; and designing, implementing, and analyzing economic experiments. Background in mathematics, economics, computer science, or engineering preferred. Faculty Contact: Professor Erin Baker.
See http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=3984 and
http://mielsvr1.ecs.umass.edu/E3lab/ for more information.
Research Assistant: Improving Decision Making Under Uncertainty. Pursue an M.S. or Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research. Pending funding from NSF. Research entails data analysis of the healthcare impacts of pollution emissions; and designing, implementing, and analyzing economic experiments. Background in mathematics, economics, computer science, or engineering, with an interest in psychology or human factors ideal. Faculty Contact: Professor Erin Baker
See http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=3984 and
http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=5344 for more information.
Research Assistant: Healthcare Operations Research. Pursue a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research. Funding currently available. Research entails mathematical modeling of healthcare contexts such as emergency medical services and primary care. Student is expected to have a keen eye for interesting applications, and be strong in the theory and methodology of optimization. Background in mathematics, optimization, computer science, or engineering preferred. Faculty Contact: Professor Hari Balasubramanian .
See http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=5732
Research Assistant: Integrative Analysis Of Hominid Feeding Biomechanics. Pursue a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering on a large collaborative project funded by NSF involving 8 other institutions. This research involves finite element analysis of digitally reconstructed skull models to understand the relationship between feeding biomechanics and craniofacial morphology of early human ancestors. Background in solid mechanics and nonlinear finite element analysis is required, and a strong interest or experience in biomechanics and comparative biology would be ideal. Faculty Contact: Professor Ian Grosse.
See http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=4074 for more information.
Research Assistant: 1) Commercial, Off-the-Shelf Technology and Personalized Medicine; 2) Bariatric Surgery Information System Development; 3) Appraising and Extending the Value of Community Health Nurses for Rural Elders Through Technology. Pursue an M.S. or Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research. Pending funding from various sources. Research entails defining patients' and health care providers' information requirements, developing information technology solutions to meet those requirements, and evaluating 1) technology adoption, 2) changes in care processes and/or decision-making and 3) changes in clinical outcomes based on the use of information technology. Background in information systems, computer science, or engineering, with an interest in health care and human factors is ideal. Faculty Contact: Professor Jenna Marquard.
See http://www.ecs.umass.edu/index.pl?id=5344 for more information.
Research Assistant: Distraction, Driving and Crashes: Modeling Human Behavior. Drivers of all ages are increasingly distracted by in-vehicle technologies and tasks such as cell phones, texting, music retrieval, and way finding. Some 25% of all crashes are thought to be due to distracting activities such as these. In order to understand better just how distracting a given technology or task can be, we are using an advanced driving simulator and eye tracker to determine the distribution of attention while drivers navigate through a virtual world with demands very similar to those that they face on the open road. A background in computer science, probability and statistics, human factors, psychology and simulation is ideal. Knowledge of Java, Flash and C can be very useful. Faculty Contact: Professor Donald Fisher.
See http://www.ecs.umass.edu/hpl for more information.
Research Assistant: Semantic Infrastructure in Product Design and Development. Pursue a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering on a collaborative project funded by NSF and industry partners. Student is expected to research, design, and develop semantic tools and information infrastructure to support engineering design and product realization. A background in engineering, with a strong interest or experience in programming, is preferred. Faculty Contact: Professors Sundar Krishnamurty & Ian Grosse.
See: http://edesign.ecs.umass.edu/ for more information
