Past Awards: 2011

Below are brief descriptions of the projects from the most recent round of awards derived from the University's share of technology commercialization royalties. These awards are designed to enhance key infrastructure in support of research and scholarship at the University of Minnesota.

Duluth Imaging Center

Bjoern Bauer, College of Pharmacy
Co-Investigators (UMD): Anika Hartz, Pharmacy; Matthew Andrews, CSE; Clay Carter, CSE; Venkatram Mereddy, CSE; Xun Yu, CSE; Lester Drewes, Medical School

A Duluth Imaging Center (DIC) with state-of-the-art imaging equipment for examining living systems from the molecule to the whole organism with financial support for acquisition of a confocal laser scanning microscope, a whole-animal in vivo imager, and 0.5 FTE staff position for technical support services.

A System for Making Photomasks at the Nanofabrication Facility

Stephen Campbell, College of Science and Engineering
Co-Investigators (from CSE): Paul Crowell, Physics; Tianhong Cui, Mechanical Engineering; Mo Li, Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Nanofabrication Center will acquire a new mask writer for making optical photomasks which will be used by almost all of our 250 research users. In addition to improved service, the proposed tool will allow the fabrication of much more complex masks, smaller features, direct optical writing on the wafer (i.e. maskless lithography), 3D optical lithography, much smoother complex features for optical and magnetics applications, and dual sided lithography.

The Advanced Optical Imaging Initiative at the UMN

Tim Ebner, Medical School
Co- Investigators (from CFANS, CSE, & CBS): Paul Lefebvre, Plant Biology; Joseph Metzger, Integrative Biology and Physiology; Joachim Mueller, Physics and Astronomy Michael O'Connor, Genetics, Cell Biology & Development; Yoji Shimizu, Lab Medicine and Pathology

Advanced equipment and improved staffing for the University Imaging Centers (UIC), the core optical imaging facilities used by faculty and their research teams across the University. Major equipment to be acquired includes multiphoton imaging, multi-modal whole animal imaging, super resolution imaging, and an upgrade of conventional imaging. In addition to equipment, funds will support more stability in technical staff services.

New Infrastructure for Campus-wide Access to 3T Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) 

Stephen Engel, College of Liberal Arts
Co- Investigators (from CSE, Medical School, CEHD): Bin He, Biomedical Engineering; Kelvin Lim, Psychiatry; Cheryl Olman, Psychology and Radiology; John Sullivan, Political Science; Kathleen Thomas, Institute for Child Development

Enhanced imaging capacity with the acquisition of a 3 Tesla MRI scanner to be added to the existing Center for Magnetic Resonance facility, requiring space upgrades and modifications as well as specialized personnel to optimize access and enhance subject recruitment and qualitative analysis for the social sciences.

The Kilburn Collaboratory (Working Title)

Carl Flink, College of Liberal Arts
Co-Investigators (from CLA): Ann Waltner, Institute for Advanced Study; Matt LeFebvre, Theatre Arts & Dance; Martin Gwinup, Theatre Arts & Dance; Marcus Dillard, Theatre Arts & Dance

The Kilburn "Collaboratory" project will radically redesign the Rarig Center's Terry Kilburn Arena Theater. Located on the west bank of the University's Minneapolis campus, the Rarig is home to the Theater Arts program. The project's goal is to create a highly flexible, state of the art multi-media facility that supports leading edge creative research in design/tech and performing arts practice, as well as, providing a unique and flexible space for mixed media scholarly presentations and artistic productions from across the West Bank Arts Quarter and the larger University community.

Improving Experimental Imaging Capabilities from the Micro Scale to the Landscape Scale

Karen Gran, UMD
Co- Investigators (from UMD): Alison Hoxie, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; Nate Johnson, Civil Engineering; Eric Musselman, Civil Engineering; John Swenson, Geological Sciences; George Host, NRRI; Brian Brashaw, NRRI

Acquisition of scientific instrumentation for the UMD Civil Engineering flume and UMD Geological Sciences source-to-sink basin facilities that is flexible and multi-purpose including a particle image velocimeter (PIV) with GSV add-on, high-speed camera, terrestrial laser scanner, and a flume cart with sheet scanner. This will significantly expand imaging capacity from micro to landscape scale.

U-Spatial: Spatial Sciences and Systems Infrastructure

Francis Harvey, College of Liberal Arts
Co-Investigators (from CFANS, CSE, IonE, CLA): Marvin Bauer, Forest Resources; Jonathan Foley, Ecology, Evolution and Behavior; Steven Manson, Geography; Steven Ruggles, MN Population Center and History; Shashi Shekhar, Computer Science and Engineering

U-Spatial coordinates equipment and services for the University research community working with spatial information, the key to spatiotemporal studies of people, places, and process. U-Spatial brings together existing resources and services and strengthens research activities in four infrastructure cores: technical assistance, training, and resource coordination; analysis of aerial and satellite imagery of the earth; data archiving and development of shared computing; and spatiotemporal modeling, geodesign, and mapping.

More Information:  U-Spatial: Spatial Sciences and Systems Infrastructure

UMD 3D Motion Capture/Video Studio

Morris Levy, UMD
Co-Investigators (from UMD): Joellyn Rock, Art and Design; Thomas Isbell, Theatre; Robert Feyen, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering; Peter Willemsen, Computer Science

An interdisciplinary research laboratory, equipped with 3D motion capture and high definition video production capabilities which will be incorporated into the existing UMD Viz Lab space. Equipped with a multiple camera shooting space, cyclorama and backdrops, studio lighting and sound booth, this high definition video production studio will foster faculty collaboration and research in biomechanics, ergonomics, animation, performing arts and computer generated virtual environments research.

Sub-0.1nm Electron Microscopy for the UMN

K. Andre Mkhoyan, College of Science and Engineering
Co-Investigators (from CSE): Uwe Kortshagen, Mechanical Engineering; Allen Goldman, Physics; Steve Campbell, Electrical and Computer Engineering; R. Lee Penn, Chemistry; Chris Leighton, Chemical Engineering & Materials Science

The acquisition of a new generation, state-of-the-art, aberration-corrected, high-resolution analytical scanning and transmission electron microscope (HR-(S)TEM) to fill a critical need for a cutting-edge instrument to push the limits of our understanding of the fundamentals of nano-scale materials via atomic, and even sub-atomic level imaging and spectroscopy.

More Information: Characterization Facility

Multi-Sensory Perception Research Facility

Andrew Oxenham, College of Liberal Arts
Co-Investigators (from CEHD, CSE ): Yuhong Jiang, Psychology; Juergen Konczak, Kinesiology; Hubert Lim, Biomedical Engineering; Peggy Nelson, Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences; Stergios Roumeliotis, Computer Science and Engineering

A new Multi-Sensory Perception (MSP) research facility to allow researchers to present visual, auditory and haptic stimuli to human subjects in an acoustically and electrically shielded environment, and to measure responses via behavioral (body and eye movement tracking), physiological (heart rate, skin conductance, ECG), and neural responses (EEG techniques).This facility extends the uni-modal capabilities of individual investigators to permit multi-modal experiments, support existing collaborations, and lead to new initiatives.

Acquisition of a Multi-source X-ray Computed Tomography System

Donna Whitney, College of Science and Engineering
Co-Investigators (from CSE): Martin Saar, Geology and Geophysics; Kieran McNulty, Anthropology; John Bischof, Mechanical Engineering; Brandy Toner, Soil, Water & Climate; Emi Ito, Geology and Geophysics

Acquisition of an X-Ray Computed Tomography (XRCT) facility to image samples ranging in size from meters to micrometers at resolutions varying from the micrometer to sub-micrometer (500 nm) scale will provide capacity to image large samples of natural and engineered materials at both the U and neighboring institutions. XRCT is a non-destructive, high-resolution method for obtaining 3D images of the surfaces and interiors of solids and fluids and is capable of resolution ~1000x better than standard tomographic medical devices, and provides faster and more accurate 3D data reconstruction.