Perfect for Alaska: Snowfree sidewalk, under development at UAA

CFT Solutions deicing technology at work on a test sidewalk.

The University of Alaska Anchorage launched its second startup company, CFT Solutions™, a business with an innovative approach to deicing and snow removal.

CFT Solutions™, a Seawolf Holdings company, was founded on the idea of creating a cutting edge, cost-effective and environmentally friendly way to prevent snow and ice from accumulating.
CFT’s patent-pending innovation is embedding carbon fiber tapes, which are easy to install and maintain, under pavement to heat the surface. This system is ideal for high pedestrian traffic walkways, roads, high usage intersections, bridges and roofs of buildings, as well as residential homes and driveways. It was successfully tested in Anchorage during the winter of 2011-12, which had a record snowfall for the area. Learn more about the testing here.

The company, created in May 2013, was established by UAA Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies Dr. Helena Wisniewski and faculty inventor Zhaohui “Joey” Yang, a UAA engineering professor.

The idea for CFT Solutions™ began three years ago when Yang met his collaborator Professor Gangbing Song from the University of Houston. Song was experimenting with commercially available flexible carbon fiber that is light, strong, non-corrosive and conducts low-voltage electricity generating a certain amount of heat. Song was using these to heat surfaces in his lab.

“Knowing how dangerous a sleek sidewalk is to pedestrians in winter, I could not wait to test the material in a more challenging winter conditions like we have here in Alaska,” Yang said. With a generous grant from the Alaska University Transportation Center, their collaboration was born.

This is the second startup company for UAA since it established Zensor™ in April earlier this year.
“Creating our second startup company within a few months of our first illustrates UAA’s upward trend in commercialization and how our research can contribute solutions for local and national needs,” said Wisniewski, who develops and oversees the business infrastructure for commercialization of faculty and student research. This infrastructure led to the establishment of Seawolf Holdings and Seawolf Venture Fund, as well as a world class Board of Directors including corporate CEOs, venture firm partners and entrepreneurs.

Learn more about Yang’s research and the inception of CFT Solutions here.
Read more about Professor Yang’s work here.

For more information about CFT Solutions™, contact Dr. Helena Wisniewski at hswisniewski@uaa.alaska.edu or Dr. Joey Yang at zyang2@uaa.alaska.edu.

Jennifer Stone and Innovate: Taking a closer look at Alaska's many local 'Englishes'

Jennifer Stone arrives at Kali Camp, a cultural immersion program on the North Slope. Her ears were attuned to language variations among locals. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Stone.

Jennifer Stone joined UAA six years ago and teaches the history of the English language, among other classes. That story is long and complex, documenting how many other languages shaped the English we speak today.

To make some of the concepts relevant to her students, Stone looked locally for examples of what happens when different languages splash up against each other.
She could hardly find richer territory than the 49th state, known for varied indigenous languages, and in more modern times, as the landing site for immigrants and refugees from around the world. She’d stumbled into a language mother lode.

When languages clash, Stone says, all sorts of things can happen, from one language killing another, to the mixing of those languages, to a whole new language forming altogether.

Certainly in Alaska, as in most colonized places, local languages yielded to the voice of power and authority. Historical education policy dismissed Native languages to the point of near extinction; recent revitalization efforts have helped support and reignite them.

“That’s part of our legacy as a state that we need to acknowledge,” Stone says. More importantly, “We need to think about how we approach language in the educational setting so that does not happen again.”

Village or local “Englishes”

 

Yet, even in the messiness of clashing languages, Stone sees tremendous vitality.
“English did not just take over Yup’ik,” she said, “but Yup’ik speakers took in English and changed it.”

What she’s talking about are the wide variety of Englishes that have surfaced all over Alaska. “We have tiny little pockets of language speakers and in each of those local communities, a different variety will pop up.” English that sounds like it has grammatical errors may sound that way because it has been influenced by indigenous sentence structure.

I asked for examples. Stone sent me a 1984 “Handbook for Teachers” on Central Yup’ik from the Alaska Native Language Center. Yup’ik-influenced English includes samples like “He wants to go college.” In Yup’ik, the handbook explains, it is legitimate to treat many nouns (like college) as verbs as long as they are accompanied by ‘go.’

This past summer, Stone participated in a culture camp at Pt. Lay on the North Slope. Her ears were tuned to the varieties of English used there, and she wasn’t disappointed. One example: When locals communicated on their radios, she noted, “They did all the greetings doubled. So, it was a lilting ‘Good morning, good morning,’ and ‘Good afternoon, good afternoon.’” Also, they often mixed Inupiat words like tuttu (caribou) and aiviq (walrus) into English speech.

Stone’s interest and enthusiasm for language varieties is influenced by the work of Geneva Smitherman, a linguist who studied children’s writing performance on national assessments. She found that students who used common features of African American English, like poetic language, without adding errors like double negatives, outperformed their peers on the test.

“One of my questions is, “What does it mean for us as educators if we make the sort of move that Geneva Smitherman did…Hey wait a minute, this is a language born out of a particular culture and set of historical circumstances. Instead of saying it’s wrong, bad, poor, not real English, what if we look at it as a cultural resource that can work to people’s advantage.”

Research initiative

 

To answer that question, Stone has embarked on a major research effort on language, literacy and technology. Last year, she won an Innovate award, university seed money, to launch the project. In spring, she trained a class of undergraduates in interview techniques and had them partner on nearly 60 interviews with students in freshmen English courses, including those in a college preparatory version.

Participants spoke many different languages, including Tsimshian, Tlingit, Yup’ik, Russian, Yoruba (from Nigeria), Inupiaq, Hmong, Spanish, Ukrainian, Japanese and Thai. The interviewers asked them to describe their experiences in home, school, work and leisure settings, and their access to tools or technologies that influenced their literacy.

The data analysis will take years, but already she’s pieced together the tale of one college freshman who found his way to writing through heavy metal music. The teenager said he wasn’t a great student and never thought of himself as a writer. But in the 10th grade, he and his buddies formed a heavy metal band; his job was to write song lyrics. That, and the writing he did to promote the band and negotiate with performance venues increased his skill dramatically. By the time he got to college, he thought of himself as a writer and his skills were validated in freshman English.

Stone plans at least five academic articles over the next year to explore similar stories from the interviews. She also envisions a book offering a less academic and more broadly interesting discussion of Alaska’s many “Englishes.”

It’s virgin territory, both for village “Englishes” and those shaped by Alaska’s immigrants and refugees. “We know nothing,” she said. “It’s a huge gap in the field.”

NOTE: A version of this story ran in the Anchorage Daily News on Dec. 14, 2013.

UAA's Innovate awards, year three

Chancellor Tom Case and Provost Bear Baker stand with individuals and teams winning research dollars offered by the Vice Provost of Research and Graduate Studies, Dr. Helena Wisniewski.

Recipients of UAA’s 2014 Innovate grant awards were named at a special evening reception on Monday, Dec. 16 in the Gorsuch Commons.
Innovate dollars are provided by the Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies as seed funding to launch research and creative projects among UAA faculty that might lead to patents and/or publication in prestigious journals.
The event was festive, with warm and cold appetizers and a giant chocolate cake set up across the back of the room, and a screen and podium in the front. Off to the side, a table held certificates and two wall plaques.
Recipients and their families were invited to mingle over appetizers or settle at cloth-covered tables around the room, its walls filled with Alaska artwork by Fred Machetanz, as well as temporary displays of artwork provided by Jill Flanders Crosby and Brian Jeffery that showcased their 2013 Innovate award for "Secrets Under the Skin."

Visiting dignitaries

 

 Dr. Helena Wisniewski, Vice Provost for Research and Dean of the Graduate School, welcomed guests, including Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell, Representative Andrew Josephson, the Honorable Arliss Sturgulewski and University of Alaska Regent Kirk Wickersham. She invited Treadwell to address the group. He was upbeat and enthusiastic about the evening’s event.

“I chair the Statewide Committee on Research as your lieutenant governor. My goals and the goals of the committee are that every Alaskan realize that yes, we do have great resources beneath our feet but also between our ears. This award ceremony makes that well known tonight."
Treadwell said he believed in a porous university, with knowledge moving in and out freely. “You can build an economy with knowledge,” Treadwell said, “But it is up to us as Alaskans to make it work.”

Update from 2013 winners

 

Before introducing three past winners to give updates on their projects, Wisniewski  reminded her audience of the ROI, the return on investment, that the Innovate program has managed. The 2013 awards totaled $200,000, she said, and to date, faculty have applied for $2.5 million in research dollars.
“We may not get all of that," she said, "but if we get half, the return on investment is pretty good!”
Eric Murphy and Colin McGill gave a summary of their blueberry research on aged rats; Joey Yang described his snowless sidewalk; and Jonathan Stecyk discussed turtle hearts and how they might help doctors treat oxygen-deprived human hearts in the future.
And then, (drum roll) this year’s winners were announced.

2014 Innovate Award winners

 

• Dr. Nathaniel Hicks, Physics & Astronomy, "PCAGE: A New Plasma Confinement Technique"
• Dr. Aaron Dotson, Civil Engineering, and Dr. Eric Dickenson, Southern Nevada Water Authority, "Coupling UV Advanced Oxidation and Ceramic Membranes to Treat Challenging Waters"
• Dr. Jonathan Stecyk, Biological Sciences, and Dr. Khrystyne Duddleston, Biological Sciences, "Influence of Temperature and Prolonged Oxygen Deprivation on the Composition and Diversity of the Turtle Gut Microbiota in Normal Physiology and Disease"
• Dr. Erin Hicks, Physics  & Astronomy, "A Step Toward Understanding the Role of Supermassive Black Holes in Galaxy Formation and Evolution"
• Dr. Ganhua Lu, Mechanical Engineering, "Vertical Graphene-Nanoparticle Hybrids for High-Performance Supercapacitors"
• Dr. Joshua Swift, Psychology, "Client and Therapist Moment-to-Moment Ratings of Significant Events in Psychology"
• Dr. Sarah Gerken, Biological Sciences, "Diastylidae of New Zealand"
• Dr. Lee Ann Munk, Geological Sceinces, and Dr. Berry Lyons, Ohio State University, "Assessing the Effects of Silicate Weathering on Atmospheric CO2 in the Aleutian Volcanic Arc"
• Dr. John Kennish, Chemistry, "Determination of the rose fragrance, salidroside, rosavin and rosarin in the Arctic root Rhodiola rosea"
• Dr. Kirk Scott, Computer Science & Engineering, "Android Apps for Computer Science Learning in Schools"
• Dr. Jocelyn McGee, Dr. Rebecca Robinson and Dr. Gloria Eldridge, Psychology, and Dr. Thomas Nighswander, Alaska Native Medical Center, and Dr. Donald Thomas, "Malawi Resilience Project"
• Dr. Ghulam Bham, Civil Engineering, and Co-PI Dr. Kenrick Mock, Computer Science and Engineering,"Development of a Fixed-Base Driving Simulator at UAA"

Two patent plaques were also presented at the event:
Data Hiding Based Messages and Advertisements

• Dr. Helena S. Wisniewski, Vice Provost of Research and Graduate Studies, Co-Inventor, U.S. Patent 8,555,052 B2 with colleagues from Stevens Institute of Technology

Process for Demineralization of Bone Matrix and Preservation of Natural Grown Factors

• Dr. N. Jane Shelby, Director of WWAMI School of Medical Education, First Inventor, U.S. Patent 8,574,825 with colleagues from Montana State University and Murray, Utah

Zensor becomes UAA's first start up company, long lifespan sensors for monitoring remote property

Electrical engineering professor John Lund with sensor.

The University of Alaska Board of Regents announced Friday that the University of Alaska Anchorage launched its first ever startup company, Zensor™. The company was established in February 2013 by UAA Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies Dr. Helena Wisniewski, and faculty inventor Dr. John Lund, a UAA electrical engineering professor.

Zensor™ LLC, a Seawolf Holdings company, offers a new generation of wireless sensors for use in remote monitoring, asset management, surveillance and security. The long-lasting sensors––boasting a 50-plus year lifespan––present several advantages over current competitors on the market: no batteries required, effective with a small power source, maintenance free, low cost and more.

The idea for Zensor™ came from Professor Lund’s observation of remote monitoring needs for the maintenance and management of assets in the harsh arctic environment. “Zensor™ sensors are intended to make monitoring remote infrastructure cheap, easy and reliable,” Lund says. He explains that the small sensors are filled with tiny circuits that can be customized to detect humidity, water flow, temperature, tilt, sound and a number of other useful criteria based on the customer’s needs.

Dr. Wisniewski developed a business infrastructure for commercialization of innovative faculty and student research, which was approved by the Board of Regents in August 2012. This infrastructure includes Seawolf Holdings and Seawolf Venture Fund, which provides seed money for startups.

“This is an exciting time for UAA,” says UAA Chancellor Tom Case. “This endeavor is just one example of how our faculty are exploring ideas and practical solutions to local and global challenges. We are a leading force, making a difference in new technologies and new hope for the future.”

Read more about Professor Lund’s work. For more information about Zensor™, contact Dr. Helena Wisniewski at hswisniewski@uaa.alaska.edu or Dr. John Lund at jalund@uaa.alaska.edu.

2013 INNOVATE award winners and their new projects

Congratulations to the second round of winners in the UAA INNOVATE Award. The 2013 winners were announced at a special event in December 2012, and recipients are hard at work on their projects now.

The purpose of the INNOVATE Award is to inspire faculty research, entrepreneurship and creative activity that will lead to publication in a peer review journal or a creative event, external research funding or intellectual property. The INNOVATE Award was created in 2011 by Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies Helena Wisniewski, to stimulate new research and intellectual property.

In her opening remarks, Vice Provost Wisniewski made note of the first year accomplishments for INNOVATE Award winners, at least as of Dec. 14, 2012. They included:

•    11 proposals submitted for external funding
•    As of Dec. 3, 2012, three had already received awards, for a total of $350,000
•    Six submissions in process to peer review journals
•    Four invention disclosures, two evolving into patents pending and two on the way
•    A Scholar in Residence
•    A method developed for image decompression that outperformed the government's own standard
•    Nine presentations at international conferences
•    The first members of the Patent Wall of Fame named, Kenrick Mock and Bogdan Hoanca.

The entire evening of awards was podcast by University Advancement and can be heard at the UAA podcast page here.

At the evening social, Vice Provost Wisniewski invited four recipients from the previous year to provide short summaries of their projects. You can hear their individual summaries within the podcast at the approximate times listed:

•    Khrystyne Duddleston, Biological Sciences, arctic ground squirrels host-gut-microbiome interactions (8:29)
•    John Lund, Electrical Engineering, ultra-long lifespan wireless sensors (13:37)
•    Colin McGill, Chemistry, Alaska bog blueberries (21:00)
•    Don Rearden, College Preparatory & Developmental Studies, a whaling novel (27:40)

In introducing the next round of winners, Vice Provost Wisniewski said 35 proposals were submitted and 16 awards would be made. The new round of applications revealed three notable facts, she said:
•    The diversity of areas and disciplines applying for awards had increased, signaling interest across campus
•    More proposals were interdisciplinary
•    Proposals were received from every one of UAA's colleges and schools.

And without further delay, the 2013 INNOVATE Award recipients and their projects are:

•    Colin McGill, Chemistry and Co-PI Eric Murphy, Psychology, "Malate Supplementation: A Dietary Intervention to Improve Spatial Memory in Aged Rats."
•    Aaron Dotson, Civil Engineering and Co-PI LeeAnn Munk, Geology, "Source Identification and Complexation of Copper in an Urban Environment."
•    Jeffrey Callahan, Construction Management, Justin McVaney, Construction & Design Technology, and Co-PI Kenrick Mock, Computer Science and Engineering, "Augmented Reality, BIM and GIS for Mobile Platforms in Architecture, Engineering and Construction."
•    Khrystyne Duddleston, Biological Sciences and Co-PI Paddy Sullivan, Environmental and Natural Resources Institute, "Importance of the Microbial Community as a Driver of Tree Performance and Treeline Position in Northwest Alaska."
•    Mark McCoy, Chemistry, "Development of a Point of Care Assay for Vitamin D."
•    Jonathan Alevy, Economics, and Co-PI Michael Young, Psychology, Illinois Institute of Technology, "Seasonality and Economic Behavior."
•    Jill Flanders Crosby, Theatre and Dance, and Co-PI Brian Jeffery, Theatre and Dance, "Secrets Under the Skin Art Installation."
•    John Lund, Electrical Engineering, "Wireless Sensor Nodes with Advanced Signal Analysis Capabilities for Expanded Sensor Network Applications."
•    Scott Hamel, Civil Engineering, "Design and Evaluation of Thin-shell Latex-modified Concrete Barrel Roof Units."
•    Kenrick Mock, Computer Science and Engineering and Co-PIs Bogdan Hoanca, Computer Information Systems, Stephanie Bauer and Raymond Anthony, Philosophy, and Yasuhiro Ozuru, Psychology, "Revealing Human Moral Decision Making Through Eye Tracking."
•    Joey Yang, Civil Engineering "Carbon Fiber Tape-Based Anti-Icing Technology for Wind Turbine Blades."
•    Dr. Andrew Puckett, Physics and Astronomy, and Co-PI Travis Rector, Physics and Astronomy, "Seed Funding for the Production of the Definitive Aurora Borealis Planetarium Show."
•    Jonathan Stecyk, Biological Sciences, "The Turtle Heart: A non-traditional model to understand and potentially treat human cardiovascular disease."
•    Jennifer Stone, English, "Language, Literature, and Technology in Alaska."
•    Patrick Tomco, Chemistry and Co-PIs Dr. Mark McCoy, Chemistry, and Steven Seefeldt, UAF Cooperative Extension Service, "Characterization of Aminopryralid Degradation in Alaska Soils."
•    Liliya Vugmeyster, Chemistry, and Co-PI Dmitry Ostrovsky, Mathematical Sciences, "Computational Modeling of Protein Flexibility via Bridging Polymer and Protein Sciences."

Watch for stories and updates on these works in progress at the UAA INNOVATE blog and in Seawolf Weekly , UAA's weekly newsletter.

INNOVATE celebrates its first birthday with reports from all 13 of the 2012 award recipients

Late in 2012, just two weeks before announcing the next round of 2013 INNOVATE award winners, Dr. Helena Wisniewski, vice provost for research and dean of the Graduate School, hosted a reception and information sharing session among the 13 winners from 2012.

Here is the list of 2012 winners and their projects.

Instrumented Mouthguard – Dr. Anthony Paris, Mechanical Engineering, and Co-PIs Dr. Jennifer Brock and Dr. John Lund, “Evaluation of Instrumentation to Assess Accelerations of the Head Due to Soccer Ball Heading.” Assisting the team were then-current mechanical engineering students Grant Birmingham and Lilan Smith.

 

The team demonstrated how INNOVATE funding allowed them to refine a next-generation instrumented mouthguard that effectively measures linear and angular accelerations of an athlete’s head, in this case, a soccer player heading balls. Refinements included decreasing the number of accelerometers in the mouthpiece from nine to six, streamlining their design and placement for ease of use in the mouth, and successfully determining accurate linear and angular accelerations.

This is an important step in the quest to develop accurate tools to measure the magnitude and nature of head impacts with the aim of understanding the biomechanics of head injury.

• "Getting a better fix on head injuries with a "smart" mouthguard, May 2012

Ecosystem carrying capacity for caribou - Dr. Don Spalinger, Biological Sciences, and CO-PIs Dr. John Lund and Dr. Herb Schroeder, "The Trophic Dynamics of Nutrient Cycling in Western Alaska Tundra Ecosystems.

Graduate students Kate Legner and Brian Atkinson on Unimak.

INNOVATE funding allowed this team to acquire high resolution satellite imagery of Unimak Island in the Aleutians to map habitat. This island, just 72 miles long and 60 miles wide, is home to a declining caribou herd. To better understand their decline, Spalinger and his team are analyzing what the caribou eat. One thing they aren't eating is lichen, usually a normal staple of the caribou diet. It doesn't exist on Unimak. So, what are they eating?

Analyzing what the landscape offers, and through chemical analysis of what the caribou are eating, will lead to a better understanding of Unimak Island's carrying capacity for caribou.


The island work served as a testing ground for technique and approach. Now, the team will take their work to more herds throughout Western Alaska.

Download a PDF of their Nov. 30, 2012 presentation.


Long-lasting, cheap sensors make watching remote Alaska easier - Dr. John Lund, Electrical Engineering, and Co-PI Dr. Todd Peterson, "Ultra-Long Lifespan Wireless Sensore Devices for Asset Management."

Low-cost sensors to monitor important infrastructure.

The practical nature of this team's innovation is obvious in Alaska, where plenty of infrastructure is out of sight, from remote roads and bridges to pipelines and buildings.

They note that both in Alaska and nationwide, infrastructure from the building boom of the 1950s is starting to fail. In remote locations, often catastrophic failure is the first indication of a problem. Emergency repairs are costly and more and more, plastic and steel materials are used, with half the lifespan of concrete.

Their solution? Add a basic, wireless sensor requiring no battery. Cost? $16 per device.

Download a PDF of this team's presentation.
When you can't be there: Cheap, solar-powered sensors  to monitor remote Alaska infrastructure, January 2012

Angel Investors and UAA: a plan to work together

UAA's Dr. Helena W. Wisniewski delivered  a talk at Anchorage's 49th State Angel Fund Forum, hosted by the Municipality of Anchorage and the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation on May 17, 2012.  (Thanks to the Mayor's office for recording her talk, which we share with you on UAA's INNOVATE blog.)

Wisniewski is UAA's Vice Provost for Research and Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate School. She brings an extensive background in higher education, industry and defense, and the entrepreneurial arena of start-ups.

Her talk covers infrastructure that UAA is establishing for investors to share in the development of patents and intellectual property created through research at UAA. She touched on many examples of current work funded with INNOVATE money in January, 2012 including: the Arctic squirrels use in the study of human obesity, the special compounds in Alaska blueberries that may provide intervention in demensia and Alzheimer's research, cheap solar-powered sensors to monitor distant infrastructure and an instrumented mouthguard that can detect impact to the brain -- useful in athletics and war-time situations where head trauma is a potential, among others.

The Municipality's receipt of $13.2M from the U.S. Department of Treasury's Small Small Business Credit Initiative prompted the summit. This fund is known as the 49th State Angel Fund. UAA Chancellor Tom Case is on the 49th State Angel Fund Advisory Committee.

KEY DATES COMING UP:

• Tuesday, July 10, Noon-1 p.m.: Brown Bag for applying for 49th State Angel Funds. R.S.V.P. here.
• Wednesday, July 25, 11a.m.-1:30 p.m. , Robert Reich, AEDC Annual Outlook Lunch.
• Sunday, August 5, midnight, 49th State Angel Fund applications close.