HOUGHTON – Nina
Mahmoudian has received the National Science Foundation’s prestigious
CAREER Award, which provides $500,442 to help overcome the biggest
limitation for autonomous vehicles – energy efficiency.
The grants
are given to early career researchers who excel in both research and education,
both of which are important parts of Mahmoudian’s Nonlinear and
Autonomous Systems Laboratory (NAS Lab) at Michigan Technological
University.
Mahmoudian,
an assistant professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics at
Michigan Tech, focuses on the continuous operation of autonomous vehicles. In
other words, she is finding ways to make these robots do their jobs longer with
no human intervention.
While
versatile, autonomous vehicles have to run on a short leash. Top of the line
equipment lasts only about eight hours in the field before having to come in to
charge or refuel. Mahmoudian’s work focuses on how to power these machines on
the fly.
“Basically
what we’re looking at is creating a team of robots that recharge and maintain
other robots,” Mahmoudian says, explaining this is called continuous operation.
She compares the autonomous vehicle robots to a cell phone: With a limited
battery charge, the battery dies in the middle of a conversation, but imagine
if a smaller machine could swoop in and charge it. An autonomous vehicle’s
work, or a cell phone’s call, could go on uninterrupted.
This mobile
and autonomous charging system should also lower costs, while better coordinating
the vehicles themselves. Mahmoudian adds that coordination is the main focus of
her CAREER Award research, and she plans to develop a clearer understanding of
how the robots move together in formations as they run through charging cycles.
“Think of
this like a flock of birds or a school of fish,” she says. “When we look at
these formations in nature, they’re efficient and we want our robots to be
just as coordinated.”
Aboveground,
this is tricky enough. But Mahmoudian focuses on a harder challenge; she is
developing better coordination for autonomous underwater vehicles, or AUVs. Her
research in this field earned Mahmoudian another award through the Office of Naval
Research’s Young Investigator Program. Designing better underwater vehicles
involves confronting challenges in mechanical engineering, software development
and networking, making the research highly interdisciplinary.
In that
spirit, Mahmoudian says her CAREER project engages Michigan Tech’s Great Lakes
Research Center as well as the Center for Agile and Interconnected Microgrids.
As a team, they will be able to establish experimental plots underwater and run
tests to refine the technology developed throughout the process.
In addition
to a strong research plan, the award was given to Mahmoudian for her commitment
to integrating research and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)
education. She is particularly concerned with increasing underrepresented
minority participation and success.
“Nina is a
talented and dedicated researcher and teacher, and receiving the prestigious
NSF CAREER award is a testament to that,” says Bill Predebon, chair of the
Department of Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics. “She is an
excellent role model for our students, particularly our women students.”
As one NSF
reviewer commented, Mahmoudian’s “education and student engagement plan is
particularly strong. As a female faculty, the [researcher] seems to take the
gender imbalance problem very seriously and will stand out as a role model in a
discipline that very much needs female role models.”
For her
part, Mahmoudian says many young women see a disconnect between societal needs
and engineering.
“Yet
engineering has direct and positive effect on people’s everyday lives.
Engineers create, innovate, and find solutions for societal problems and
transform many ideas into realities,” she says.
Inspiring
young scientists-to-be led Mahmoudian to actively participate in a number of
local STEM outreach programs like Water Festival and Summer Youth Programs such
as Women in Engineering and Engineering Scholars. She and her NAS Lab team
teach students using a tube-like underwater robot called GUPPIE, short for Glider for Problem-solving and Promotion of Interest in
Engineering.
“We want to
make these platforms accessible to teachers and students for in-class and
after-school teaching,” Mahmoudian says, adding that they also put together
teaching material and hands-on activities to teach a variety of STEM concepts.
Specifically,
for the CAREER Award, Mahmoudian and her lab will team up withWestern Upper Peninsula Center
for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education and Michigan Tech’s Center for
Pre-College Outreach to engage students and teachers from local, rural
school districts.
The project
provides interdisciplinary training opportunities for graduate and
undergraduate students as well.
“Professors
share a great responsibility in advising students in choosing their career path
and developing their intellectual capabilities,” Mahmoudian says, adding that
research and education should be integrated. That connectedness and
coordination is reflected in all of Mahmoudian’s work as she combines
fundamental research with applied research to seamlessly transition between
academic problem solving and real world applications.
