National Science Foundation ' Directorate for Engineering ' Division of Chemical and Transport Syste

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National Science Foundation.Directorate for
Engineering.Division of Chemical and Transport
Systems
2003 ERC Forum and Workshop New Directions in
Engineering Research American Society for
Engineering Education

• Robert M. Wellek
• Deputy Division Director
• rwellek_at_nsf.gov
• .
• February 24, 2003

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CTS Division Focus

• ? Science and technology of operations
• that involve transformations
• physical, chemical, or biochemical
• and transport of matter and energy
• Process Industries
• ? PI community comes primarily from
• Chem Eng and Mech Eng - - as well as
• CE, AE, Chem, Mat Sci, Met Eng, etc.

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CTS Finances Core Program Budget

• ? CTS budget is about 59 million.
• ? The annual budgets of the eight
• sub-programs are on the order of
• 5 to 7 million each.
• ? Some funds are reserved for
• CTS/NSF areas of emphasis

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CTS Division Programs - Eight Thematic Areas

• ? Chemical Reaction Processes
• ? Kinetics, Catalysis Molecular Processes
• Glenn Schrader Program Director
• ? Process Reaction Engineering
• Maria Burka - Program Director
• ? Interfacial, Transport Separation
• Processes
• ? Interfacial, Transport Thermodynamics
• Robert Wellek - Program Director
• ? Separation Purification Processes
• Geoff Prentice - Program Director

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CTS Division Programs(continued)

• ? Fluid, Particulate Hydraulic Systems
• ? Particulate Multiphase Processes
• Cyrus Aidun - Program Director
• ? Fluid Dynamics Hydraulics
• Michael Plesniak - Program Director
• ? Thermal Systems
• ? Thermal Transport Thermal Processing
• Richard Smith - Program Director
• ? Combustion Plasma Systems
• Farley Fisher - Program Director

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CTS/NSF Areas of Emphasis

• ? Nanoscale Science and Engineering
• ? Information Technology Research
• ? Environmental Technology
• ? Infrastructure and Security
• ? Education and Human Resource
• Development
• (RET, REU, CAREER, Advance, etc.)

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Target Areas for Recent CTS Investments

• Development of Functional Materials
• and Processes on Multiple Scales
• ? Film and particle formation via self-assembly
• combustion, and plasma processes
• ? New catalysts and biocatalysts for high
  selectivity and
• energy efficiency
• ? Sensors for detection, analysis, and process
  control
• ? Nano-porous membranes for chemical and
  biochemical
• separations
• ? Micro-scale reactors to produce designed
  molecules
• ? High-end computing tools for accelerating
  design,
• processing and manufacturing of novel
  materials

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Target Areas for CTS Investments(Continued)

• Biotechnology
• ? Selective reaction and separation processes
  for
• production of high-value and therapeutic
  molecules
• Green Engineering
• ? New catalysts for use of alternate feedstocks
  and
• production of less waste
• ? Cleaner and more efficient energy conversion
  systems
• ? Use of benign solvents in materials processing
  and
• separations
• ? Plasma processes for hazardous waste treatment

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Proposal Processing

• ? Most proposals are unsolicited and
• are reviewed by mail
• ? First criterion is technical merit
• ? Second, equally important, criterion
• is potential for broad impact
• ? Program Officers have responsibility
• to balance investments

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Proposal Types(CTS Division)

• ? Unsolicited - Largest Number, Anytime
• ? Special Programs - CAREER, NANO,
• NSF/EPA, MRI, ITR Fixed Deadlines
• ? SGER - Small Grants for Exploratory
• Research.
• ? Supplements - REU, Minor Equipment,
• RET, International Collaboration

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CTS Proposal/Award Statistics Fiscal Year 2002

• ? 765 Competitive Actions
• ? 247 Awards
• ? 32 Success Rate
• ? 80,000/year Median Award
• ? 2.3 Years Mean Duration
• ? 5-month Average Processing Time

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CTS Division Areas of Increasing Importance

• ? Nanotechnology
• ? Molecular Modeling/Simulation
• ? Environment, Benign Products
• Processes Sustainable Technologies
• ? Micro Systems Functional Surfaces,
• Sensors, Particulate Systems, Catalysis, Etc
• ? Modeling Simulation of Macro Systems
• ? Integration of Education Research

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CTS Division Trends

• ? Group/Multidisciplinary Projects
• ? Projects Supported by Multiple
• Programs, Divisions, Directorates.
• ? Increased Collaboration with other
• Agencies
• ? Increased Industrial Interactions
• - - GOALI Regular Grants

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CTS DivisionNanoscale Science and Technology

• Thematic Areas
• ? Catalysis
• ? Nanoporous-microporous materials
• ? Combinatorial catalysis in arrays of
  nano-reactors
• ? Molecular engineering of catalysis surfaces
• ? Supported metal-cluster catalysis
• ? Synthesis
• ? Fabrication of templated and self-assembled
  films,
• nanotubes, and membranes
• ? Flame synthesized nanoparticles
• ? Synthesis of semiconductor metal nano-wires

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CTS DivisionNano-scale Science and Technology

• ? Modeling and Simulation
• ? Molecular simulation of the synthesis,
  assembly
• and properties of nano-structured
  materials
• ? Modeling of thermal processes in
  nano-materials
• ? Modeling of fluid flow in micro systems
• ? Processes
• ? Separations and catalytic reactions with
• functionalized surfaces and membranes
• ? Electrodeposition of nano-crystalline
  materials
• and composites

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CTS SUMMARY

• ? CTS Funding Areas
• Very Broad and Involve PIs
• from a Large Number of Disciplines
• ? Program Officers
• Anticipate Important Trends, Assume
• Leadership Roles in Broader Initiatives,
• Collaborate Widely Outside of
• CTS, ENG NSF

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Molecular Engineering of Chemically Selective
Surfaces
Vinay K. Gupta - University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
Slide 1 of 2
Background Engineering chemically selective
surfaces by molecular self-assembly of
bowl-shaped host molecules for targeted
recognition of guests such as neutral organics
and metal ions.
Chemically Selective Self-assembled Surface
CTS-9875467
CTS-9875467-1414
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Molecular Engineering of Chemically Selective
Surfaces
Slide 2 of 2

• Scientific Uniqueness
• First demonstration of discrimination
• between structural isomers by self-
• assembled surfaces.
• Potential Impact
• Detection and separation of trace
• organic molecules that are common
• contaminants of aqueous solutions.
• Use of ionized cavitands to detect and
• separate metallic ions such as alkali and
• alkaline earth metals (Na, Mg, K), heavy
• metals (mercury, uranium), and bind
• transitions metals as catalytic agents.

CTS-9875467-1414
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Protein Interactions with Nano-Scale Controlled
Surfaces Non-Fouling Mechanism Shaoyi Jiang
University of Washington, Seattle
Background Non-fouling surface is critical to
sensors for the detection of biological warfare
agents to (a) Improve sensitivity (b)
Avoid false alarm
Impact IMMUNO-BASED
BIOSENSORS
Quantitative and simultaneous detection of
multiple analytes (e.g., biological threat
agents involving bacteria, viruses and toxins) in
complex media using home-built surface plasmon
resonance (SPR) biosensors with molecular
recognition groups in the background of
non-fouling surfaces.
Uniqueness I Non-fouling mechanism is related
to nano-scale surface properties
Protein adsorption
Protein resistance
Uniqueness II Integrated experimental and
simulation study of controlled PEG
Self-Assembled Monolayers
NSF CTS-0308598-SGER-1414
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Protein/Polymer Nanostructures for Chemical
Sensing Michael Pishko Pennsylvania State
University CTS-9875372 CTS-0227420
Ricin Sensor System
A rod-coil redox polymer that forms
electroactive supramolecular nanoassemblies via
crystallization of the rod segment.
Conformation of a rod-coil redox polymer.
Layer-by-layer polymer/catalytic enzyme
nano-composite thin films that can be
self-assembled on microelectrode arrays.
Enzyme
Redox Polymer
MUA
CTS-9875372-1401
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Urban Fluid MechanicsAir Circulation and
Dispersion in Cities
H. Joe S. Fernando Arizona State University

• Background
• Response to chemical-biological terrorism
• Tools to predict atmospheric flows in
• urban areas are needed.
• Experiments have been conducted on
• flow through a building array as part
• of the Mock Urban Setting Trials
• (U.S. Army), and a predictive
• mathematical model was developed
• with NSF support.
• Results
• ? The 3-D city scale model, nested with
• a meso-scale model, performs
• satisfactorily.
• Animation Video Available

Mock Urban Setting Trials Dugway Proving Grounds,
Utah
CTS-0001952-1443
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Urban Fluid MechanicsAir Circulation and
Dispersion in Cities

• Potential Impact
• Direct applications for dispersion from a
• hazardous source.
• A planning tool
• in building design.
• A tool for
• emergency response.
• Can be connected with an indoor/outdoor model.

Mock Urban Setting Trials Dugway Proving Grounds,
Utah
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Designing Healthy and Energy-Efficient Buildings
Using Computational Fluid Dynamics
Jelena Srebric - The Pennsylvania State University

• Current technology is not able to solve many
  practical design problems in optimizing building
  environment internal and external design.
• Objectives of this CAREER project are
• ? Predict accurately how pollutants are
  transported from outdoor and indoor sources
• ? Develop a coupled flow and energy simulation
  program
• Results
• ? Available data on outdoor airflows to develop
  a simple and reliable model are collected
• Potential Impact
• ? Enables simulation of transient outdoor
  airflow and
• contaminant dispersion to properly design
• immune building able to protect their
• occupants in case of contaminant dispersion
• ? Reduce energy use and greenhouse gas
• emissions by buildings
• ? Improve indoor air quality and thermal comfort
• Note Animation on Next Slide Pause to View

CTS-0134326-CAREER-1406
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Designing Healthy and Energy-Efficient Buildings
Using Computational Fluid Dynamics (continued)
NOTE Please Pause to View Animation
CTS-0134326-CAREER-1406
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Collection Classification of Ultra-Fine
Nano-Scale Powders
Thomas R. Blake K. Jakus - University of
Massachusetts, Amherst
? BACKGROUND There are formidable
challenges in the development of devices
for collecting ultra-fine powders.
Model Impact Separator System

• ? RESULTS Advance the science of and develop a
  system to
• collect or classify air-borne ultra-fine and
  nano-scale powders.
• UNIQUENESS Extend impact separation
  technology with
• sub-atmospheric operating pressure - alters
  aerodynamic drag
• of particles. Collect powders of any size
  or separate and
• classify powders with a pre-determined
  diameter from others.
• ? IMPACT Enable handling of ultra-fine and
  nano-scale powders
• for hazardous particulate clouds.

CTS-0118204-1415

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More Information

• ? General Program Description
  www.eng.nsf.gov/cts
• ? Award Search on FastLane www.nsf.gov/verity/
  srchawdf.htm NSF organization CTS
• ? E-mail rwellek_at_nsf.gov

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Environmental Instrumentation Activities (all
Engineering Directorate)
? NSF/EPA Environmental Technologies and
and Systems
www.eng.nsf.gov/ets ? NSF/EPA Technology for a
Sustainable Sustainable Environment
www.eng.nsf.gov/tse ? NSF/EPA New Technologies
for the Environment
www.eng.nsf.gov/nte ? ENG Biocomplexity in the
Environment
www.eng.nsf.gov/be
? ENG Major Research Instrumentation

www.eng.nsf.gov/mri