newsletter · lems in their energy usage that will cause inefficiency, extra costs, or equipment...

www.pitapa.org Fall 2013

NEWSLETTER

In this issue…———————————————Introducing New PITA Co-director.......................................................

Welcome, 2013 PITA Project Partners! .......................................................

PA Collaboration Advances Information

Technologies for Energy Management.......................................................

CMU-Bombardier Partnership

Furthers Transportation Technology.......................................................

PITA Grant Supports Improving

Cryogenic Cooling Systems.......................................................

Bosch & CMU Advance Navigation

Technology in Mobile Devices

PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCEA Commonwealth-University-Industry Partnership for Economic Development through Research, Technology, and Education

Bosch & CMU Advance Navigation Technology in Mobile Devices

We are pleased to announce that the Pennsylvania Governor and the Pennsylvania Gen-

eral Assembly have approved continued funding for the 2014 Pennsylvania Infrastructure

Technology Alliance (PITA) program. We are currently awarding new PITA projects that

promise to achieve the success of past projects by strengthening the R&D of Pennsylvania

companies as they work to grow and develop new technology.

PITA is a sponsored program designed to provide economic benefit to Pennsylvania

through knowledge transfer, the discovery of new technologies, and the retention of highly

educated students. It is a collaboration between the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the

Center for Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems (ATLSS) at Lehigh Universi-

ty, and the Institute for Complex Engineered Systems (ICES) at Carnegie Mellon University.

The articles in this latest issue illustrate how PITA is continuing to make an impact on

Pennsylvania economically and technologically. This issue features successful partner-

ships to improve technology in mobile device navigation, automated people mover transit

systems, consumer energy usage, and cryogenic cooling systems.

A partnership between Carnegie Mellon University Assistant Professor of Electrical

and Computer Engineering (ECE) Anthony Rowe and Bosch’s Pittsburgh-based Research

Technology Center has been successfully furthering navigation in mobile devices by work-

ing to improve the ability of these devices to perform indoor tracking or “localization.”

Using sound to develop an indoor ultrasonic ranging technology, the partnership is now

exploring a wide variety of applications.

Another successful Pittsburgh-based partnership is the work Associate Professor of

ECE Bruno Sinopoli is doing with Bombardier Transportation Systems to further the

technology in automated people movers and to also lower the cost of these systems.

Bombardier sees their new approach as a “game changing solution” in terms of expand-

ing market potential and making these systems more accessible for future customers to

purchase and install.

Lehigh University Professor of Chemical Engineering James Hsu is working with PPL

Electric Utilities to improve the ways in which consumers use energy. This collaborative

effort is creating software that allows consumers to be more energy efficient by seeing

both how they have used energy in the past, as well as to recognize future potential prob-

lems in their energy usage that will cause inefficiency, extra costs, or equipment failures

and maintenance needs.

Finally, Lehigh researchers are partnering with Dynalene Inc., — an industry leader in

the manufacturing, R&D, and sales of proprietary heat transfer liquids — to create im-

proved cryogenic cooling systems. By making this system more cost-effective and efficient

Dynalene will be able to create a product that has immense value in cryogenic cooling

applications, is able to be commercialized quickly, and ultimately benefits Pennsylvania’s

chemical, pharmaceutical, natural gas, and biomedical industries.

As you see with this latest issue, PITA continues to help create and foster partnerships

between Pennsylvania industry and researchers and to further the technology being devel-

oped and marketed in the state of Pennsylvania.

Please feel free to contact us if you would like more information about the featured

articles in this issue or for more information on PITA. Information is also available on our

web site at www.pitapa.org.

Burak [email protected]

412-268-9890

ICES, Carnegie Mellon

University

Richard [email protected]

610-758-3525

ATLSS, Lehigh University

PITA • PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE • FALL 2013 NEWSLETTER • WWW.PITAPA.ORG

PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURETECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE

Message from PITA Co-DirectorsBurak Ozdoganlar and Richard Sause


The PITA program administrators are

pleased to introduce Burak Ozdoganlar as a

new PITA co-director. He will be assuming

the roles of PITA co-director for Carnegie

Mellon University (CMU) and associate

director of the Institute for Complex Engi-

neered Systems (ICES), as Gary Fedder tran-

sitions into his new role as associate dean

of research for the College of Engineering at

CMU. Dr. Ozdoganlar brings a wealth of related expertise

and experience to this position and a particular interest in

manufacturing research.

Dr. Ozdoganlar says “I am really excited about this new

position, and looking forward to building even stronger

connections and collaborations between academy, industry

and government in Pennsylvania in order to realize impor-

tant advances in technology and innovation in our state.”

In addition to position as professor in the Department of

Mechanical Engineering, he holds affiliated faculty posi-

tions in Biomedical Engineering and Materials Science &

Engineering. His primary research interests include the

modeling and experimentation of manufacturing processes

and systems, specializing in multi-scale (macro/micro/nano-)

manufacturing and its applications (including medical

and bio-medical device fabrication); precision engineer-

ing; modeling and experimental approaches in structural

dynamics; and modal testing and analysis.

Dr. Ozdoganlar earned M.S. degrees from Ohio State

University in aerospace engineering (1993) and mechanical

engineering (1995); and a Ph.D. degree (1999) in mechanical

engineering from University of Michigan. He has been a

faculty member at CMU since 2004.

Since 1998, $51,413 million (through 2013 funding) in PITA funding has allowed 355 faculty and 1600+ students (attending 16 universities) to collaborate on 964 projects with 352 PA companies and organizations.

Bionic Eye Technologies

Water Innovation with Science and Engineering (WISE, LLC)

Specialty Engineering

BioSample Solutions LLC

Materials Complexions Inc.

Welcome, 2013 PITA Project Partners!

Introducing New PITA Co-director

For more information, please contact Dr. Liang Cheng at [email protected]

What if energy consumers had ac-

cess to their electric usage data, hour

by hour? And, what if it was nicely

displayed in informative bar charts?

The U.S. Department of Energy utility-

led initiative “Green Button” allows

consumers to do just that by providing

them with easy and secure access to

their usage data by clicking the Green

Button icon on their online utility ac-

count. With this kind of information,

consumers can see when they use the

most energy and give them an oppor-

tunity to lower their usage and costs.

Many utilities have implemented this

technology, and many more have com-

mitted to do so. To date, over 50 apps

have been developed using Green

Button data — primarily to display

historical usage.

What if consumers could then use

this data to anticipate problems that

could occur in the future, like know-

ing that a refrigerator, heat pump,

A/C or pool pump is beginning to fail?

This is exactly what PPL Electric

Utilities — which serves customers in

central and eastern Pennsylvania — is

developing as applications by col-

laborating with Lehigh University re-

searchers. For the last 10 years, PPL

Electric Utilities had been displaying

hourly, weekly and monthly usage for

customers using its company-wide

Smart Meter system. In order to create

a smarter technology, however, the

company approached Lehigh Univer-

sity researchers with the desire to

investigate more pro-active, future

looking applications, which move

beyond historical displays.

The result is a new collabora-

tion between a master’s student in

Lehigh’s Energy Systems Engineer-

ing program directed by Dr. Martha

Dodge, receiving a PPL Electric

Utilities Scholarship, and a Ph.D.

student advised by Dr. Liang Cheng in

Lehigh’s Computer Science and Engi-

neering Department, being funded by

a Pennsylvania Infrastructure Tech-

nology Alliance (PITA) grant.

In this research and development

initiative, Lehigh researchers are cre-

ating software that implements data

mining techniques to detect abnormal

energy-usage patterns; identifying

misbehaviors of appliances for resi-

dential, industry, and/or government

users; and presenting and publishing

their work on data mining and pat-

tern recognition algorithms that are

created to process Green Button data.

These new applications will provide

consumers with tools to recognize po-

tential problems in their energy usage

that cause inefficiency or extra costs

and that could be signs of equipment

failures or maintenance needs.

“PPL Electric Utilities supports

customer choice and increased cus-

tomer engagement in energy efficien-

cy and conservation, which research

such as the Green Button project will

enable,” explains Tom Stathos, direc-

tor of customer programs & compli-

ance at PPL Electric Utilities. “The

more information consumers have,

in the way they want to receive it, the

easier it will be for them to be energy

efficient and save money in ways that

positively affect their lifestyles.

He continues: “PPL Electric Utili-

ties is pleased to provide scholarship

funds to support an Energy Systems

Engineering master’s student work-

ing on this project. In addition, PPL

Electric Utilities will meet with the

project participants to provide their

industry perspective and expert ad-

vice based on their experiences.”

Lehigh University and PPL Electric

Utilities are analyzing the results of

Lehigh’s research closely in antici-

pation that it will support customer

education, awareness, and involve-

ment in the general public’s own en-

ergy management. This collaboration

across university departments, among

graduate students, research faculty

and industry professionals is leverag-

ing the talents of all three groups to

achieve useful and scalable results.


PA Collaboration Advances Information Technologies for Energy Management

Mass transit service has been a major concern of metro-

politan areas for almost a century. Beginning in the 1960s,

new technology — like the automated people mover (APM)

— was developed to create systems that could move large

numbers of people in limited spaces without the infrastruc-

ture limitations faced in building subways and traditional

trains systems. These APMs — which include monorails,

maglevs, and automated walkways used in airports — are

fully automated, transit systems that use a guideway to

move and guide the vehicle along a designated track. One

of the constraints for the development of these systems in

smaller cities or airports with constrained budgets, how-

ever, is the cost of the guideway system.

Bombardier Transportation Systems, a leading provider

of APM systems and located in Pittsburgh, PA, has part-

nered with Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) researcher

Bruno Sinopoli to rethink this existing, and often expen-

sive, technology. Their goal is to make these systems more

affordable for cities like Pittsburgh to integrate into their

mass transit systems.

Dr. Sinopoli, an associate professor of electrical and

computer engineering (ECE), and his research team, includ-

ing ECE doctoral student Steven Aday, have been working

with Bombardier to transition from the APM’s existing

reliance on the guideway to a self-directed, electronically-

guided, onboard-powered vehicle that eliminates the signal

rail, guidance beam, and power rail from the guideway.

Says Kevin Lewis, Bombardier product manager of auto-

mated people movers: “Even a minor reduction in the cost

of the guideway can have a significant impact on the overall

cost of the APM system.”

Bombardier Transportation brought to this partnership

technology they had already developed — the Bombardier

CITYFLO 650TM communications-based train control (CBTC)

— which eliminated the need for the signal rail. By partner-

ing with Dr. Sinopoli and his research team, Bombardier

is developing electronic guidance for autonomous vehicle

control using sensors, instead of the guideway, to guide

a vehicle along a designated track. This approach uses a

laser rangefinder within the body of the vehicle that takes

distance measurements to key points in its environment.

This information is processed via on-board computers that

will then steer the vehicle along the designated track.

Lewis calls this approach “a game changing solution,”

and the company recognizes the great market potential for

developing this electronic method of guidance in its exist-

ing rail system.

Together, Bombardier and CMU are working to make the

installation of automated people movers less expensive,

easier to install, and as a result, more accessible for future

customers to purchase and install.

For more information, contact Bruno Sinopoli at [email protected]


CMU-Bombardier Partnership Furthers Transportation Technology

INNOVIA Automated People Mover (APM), Phoenix, USA

“Bombardier Transportation has been investingin the development of electronic guidance, butcompetitive pressures limit the total commitmentour company can provide in both manpower andfunds. PITA funding and partnering with CMUresearchers has given us the ability to develop this marketable technology.” — Kevin Lewis, Bombardier Product Manager

PITA Grant Supports Improving Cryogenic Cooling Systems

For more information, please contact James Hsu at [email protected]

Cryogenic cooling systems are used in a variety of applications including food preservation,

cryosurgery, medical devices, chemical reactors, and rocket fuels, as well as applications used

specifically in manufacturing and fabrication. A Pennsylvania Infrastructure Technology Alli-

ance (PITA) grant has allowed Dynalene Inc. — an industry leader in the manufacturing, R&D,

and sales of proprietary heat transfer liquids, headquartered in Whitehall, PA — to partner

with Lehigh University Professor of Chemical Engineering James Hsu to create an improved

cryogenic cooling system.

These PITA-funded partners are designing and optimizing a more cost-effective, efficient

cryogenic cooling system that includes a continuous desiccation system — a continuous pro-

cess for removing excess frozen water that builds up in the system.

In the operation of a cryogenic cooling system — normally operated in the range of -50°C

to -100°C — in which a refrigerant is used or processed, a high concentration of entrapped

frozen water can cause considerable difficulty by either clogging or obstructing the free pas-

sage of fluid through process piping. Also, the entrapped water can decrease the heat transfer

capability of the cryogenic cooling system, as the water tends to form hydrated sludge, which

is difficult to pump. Thus, in many refrigeration systems, moisture level below 100 ppm at 70°F

must be maintained if problems such as sludge formation, acid and icing in the cooling coils

are to be avoided.

Desiccation systems used to remove water in current cryogenic cooling systems tend to

be operated in a batch mode as a slip stream from the main fluid stream. Dynalene and Dr.

Hsu, however, are developing a desiccation system that is continuous. In their process, the

water is removed by passing the refrigerant through a desiccant — drying — column which is

packed with adsorbents — calcium sulfate, activated alumina, silica gel, activated carbon and

zeolites. This approach uses a swing operation with two columns: one for dewatering and the

other one for regeneration. When the operating column is saturated with water, the regener-

ated column is then switched to the dewatering operation.

The basic desiccation system structure includes a vertical, cylindrical, hollow column.

This column also has a closed hemispherical bottom portion that acts as a chamber to collect

excess fluid discharged from the various filter elements, which remove the ice crystals and

other particles.

This collaboration benefits Dynalene directly by creating a product that has immense value

in cryogenic cooling applications and as a result, will be able to be commercialized within a

short period of time. It also benefits Pennsylvania’s chemical, pharmaceutical, natural gas,

and biomedical industries, which all use cryogenic cooling system applications.


Navigation technology has been improving by leaps and

bounds to ensure that we are no longer able to lose our-

selves. Using the personal navigation tools in our smart-

phones and tablets, we feel confident in figuring out where

we are by using their outdoor localization technology,

which allows us to pinpoint our geographical location. De-

spite these advances, however, we are still not able to use

our mobile devices as successfully in figuring out where

we are inside a building. This often occurs because GPS

signals are no longer available and WiFi reception may be

spotty or hard to accurately use for ranging inside a struc-

ture. As a result, these technologies are not as successful at

tracking our indoor location.

Anthony Rowe, an assistant professor in the Department

of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Carn-

egie Mellon University (CMU), has been working success-

fully with Bosch’s Pittsburgh-based Research Technology

Center (RTC) to address this need in tracking technology,

or “indoor localization.” For the past two years, and with

the support of two PITA grants, this research partnership

has advanced the ability to be able to use sound and light

as ways to improve indoor localization in a wide variety of

applications from navigating inside a building to targeted

advertising and social networking.

Their approach to indoor tracking has taken a differ-

ent path from other recent radio-based solutions. Rowe

and his team realized that wireless signals tend to leak

through walls, making their ability to exactly pinpoint the

specific meaningful — e.g., specific room — location within

a building very inaccurate. Instead, they have been using

sound, and more recently light, to track a device’s signal as

it moves through inside space. Their approaches are lower

in cost and easier to deploy, two characteristics that are ap-

pealing to Bosch.

By using sound as a sensing device, the research team

has developed an indoor ultrasonic ranging technology —

acoustic location processing system: ALPs — to localize

modern mobile devices. ALPs can be used with off-the-

shelf audio speakers to provide fine-grained indoor posi-

tioning data that doesn’t leak through walls. This technol-

ogy offers great deployment opportunities in public spaces

using, for example, sound speakers (PA systems) which

tend to be regularly spaced and positioned close to users.

The team is also exploring the use of light as a sens-

ing device. In this approach, coding data in LED lights —

which can be switched on and off quickly — can be used

as a way for cell phones to determine indoor location, or

localization. In this case, the cell phone will detect the

lights and use it as a guided to determine location, while

the human eye will not.

Bosch has been excited by the market potential of this

new technology, which has the potential to be used in a

wide variety of applications relevant to Bosch products

and services.

“As one of the world leaders in Energy and Building

Technology, we are constantly looking for new solutions

that will deliver value to our customers,” explains Chris-

topher Martin, senior expert at RTC-Pittsburgh. “From

existing scenarios in convenience and safety to new ap-

plications in health care and building automation, it is

clear that a broadly available and highly reliable indoor

localization system will enable Bosch to deliver additional

benefits to our end users.”

“The PITA grant has been really helpful in supporting

new faculty with innovative ideas,” says Dr. Rowe. In this

case, the grant has allowed former classmates Rowe and

Chris Martin continue a partnership they shared as fellow

graduate students at CMU in their careers.

This technology also has the potential to add to the

creation of smart buildings, something that was reinforced

when this research partnership recently received funding

from the Department of Energy to develop this technology.

For more information, contact Anthony Rowe at [email protected]



“The Bosch RTC has been working together with CMU and the ECE Department since the opening of our lab in 2000. This recently funded PITA project is a perfect example of both the innovative new ideas that are generated by the top-tier faculty and students at RTC-Pittsburgh, as well as a demonstration of the broad-based set of competencies required to bring them into reality.” — Jeffrey Donne, Senior Manager, RTC-Pittsburgh

ICES, 1201 Hamburg HallCarnegie Mellon UniversityPittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

PENNSYLVANIA INFRASTRUCTURE

TECHNOLOGY ALLIANCE

LED lights — which can be switched on and off quickly — can be used as a way for cell phones to determine indoor location. The cell phone will

detect the switching, while the human eye will not, and use it as a guide to determine location.


More information about this Bosch and Carnegie Mellon research effort inside

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