From the College of Engineering at Oregon State University, this is "Engineering Out Loud"—a podcast telling the stories of how our research and innovation here are helping change the world out there.
Imagine the camera of a self-driving car switches to a power-saving mode and takes low-resolution images. As a result, the car hits a pedestrian. A mundane decision to save battery thus becomes a decision to value battery life over human life. While we have long relied on software and automation, the prospect of a fully automated decision process charges many algorithmic decisions with a variety of ethical problems.
The talk presented in this podcast, “Where do Ethics Belong in Artificial Intelligence?”, explores how philosophers and engineers think about ethics in artificial Intelligence. It was presented at Oregon State University by Houssam Abbas, assistant professor of electrical engineering and Alicia Patterson, assistant professor of philosophy, as part of an AI seminar series.
BONUS CONTENT
Artificial intelligence program at Oregon State
AI Newsletter at Oregon State
AI seminars at Oregon State
The Klamath River is transforming after four dams were removed in 2024. In this episode, we join the research team studying the impacts of the dam removals on plant and algae. Hear from the students and faculty about what they are learning at the confluence of engineering and ecology.
BONUS CONTENT
River Rebalance (story)
Mark Bransom Heads the Historic Klamath Dam Removals (video)
How Engineers Decommissioned Four Dams Along the Klamath River (lecture video)
Rewilding the Klamath (story)
What it Takes to Take Down a Dam (podcast)
The removal of four dams from the Klamath River was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to capture the interplay of science, engineering, and culture. Desirée Tullos, professor of water resources engineering at Oregon State University assembled a collaborative team that unites Western science and traditional ecological knowledge of Indigenous people.
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This is a historic year on the Klamath River, where the biggest dam removal in the U.S. is underway. The hope for the monumental engineering project is that it will restore some balance to a damaged ecological system. We hear from Mark Bransom, who is overseeing the demolition and restoration, about why and how it’s happening and some of the challenges of the project.
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Will swarms of unmanned aerial vehicles be able to aid humans in wildland firefighting or package delivery? Research summarized in a new paper in Field Robotics represents a big step towards realizing such a future. In this interview, Professor Julie A. Adams describes the research showing that one person can supervise more than 100 autonomous ground and aerial robots.
The final episode of the season occupies a time of transition, as spinoff company Espiku ramps up. We get an update on two systems that received patents and a third that could provide an environmentally benign technology for extracting lithium. We also hear from four graduating students who reflect on their experiences.
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The pandemic didn’t stop Bahman Abbasi’s desalination research. In this third episode, we learn about the successful lab-scale demonstration of his team’s technology and the next steps toward its commercialization. Plus, the team takes on a new project to clean up wastewater from oil and gas production.
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In the second episode of this four-part season, we travel to Bend, Oregon to visit the Water and Energy Technologies Laboratory and meet the team that is inventing a new technology to desalinate water. Bahman Abbassi, associate professor of mechanical engineering, talks about building the lab from the ground up, and graduate student Mohammed Elhashimi demonstrates their system to desalinate water.
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Can turning seawater into drinking water be a cost-effective way to provide clean, fresh water for the growing numbers of people facing water scarcity? Bahman Abbasi, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is taking up that challenge with a mobile, modular, solar-powered, desalination system. This is the first episode in a four-part season.
Bonus content
What is Oregon doing to prepare for earthquakes, tsunamis, and wildfire? Researchers at Oregon State University are working with the state Legislature to help them make informed decisions about how to prepare for natural hazards.
Can plants fortify Oregon’s coastal dunes against storm surge? Meagan Wengrove, assistant professor of coastal and ocean engineering, built scale versions of dunes in one of the world’s largest wave flumes to find out.
After a major disaster, hidden amid the rubble and debris are precious clues about the extreme forcesstructures were subjected to, and exactly what caused them to fail. How can researchers collect this perishable data before it’s swept away? Michael Olsen, professor of geomatics and technical director of the NHERI RAPID Facility, talks about a major effort to get crucial technology into the hands of reconnaissance experts quickly, wherever disaster strikes. https://beav.es/URn
What will it take for Oregon to recover after a magnitude 9.0 Cascadia subduction zone earthquake? Among other things, it will need a major airport to receive the tons of relief supplies from around the world. Prof. Armin Stuedlein and a research team from Oregon State University conducted crucial testing that guided engineers with big plans to make sure one of the runways at Portland International Airport survives the shaking. engineering.oregonstate.edu/season-11-engineering-natural-disasters/saving-pdx-s11e5
Wildfires that devastate mountain communities have the potential to foul the water distribution system running underneath residential structures. But knowing which water pipes have been affected is challenging. Erica Fischer, assistant professor of structural engineering, is working with a team of engineers and scientists to develop and test sensors that can easily indicate if water pipes need to be replaced following a fire.
How do engineers fight wildfires? With fire. David Blunck, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is trying to better understand and predict the behavior of embers that spread blazes. To do this, he has to burn a few of his own.
What happens to bridges, buildings, and pipelines when the soil holding them up behaves like a liquid? Ben Mason, associate professor geotechnical engineering, has traveled the world doing post-earthquake reconnaissance to find out and make us better prepared for impending earthquakes.
The long-feared 9.0 magnitude Cascadia subduction zone earthquake, which seismologists say is inevitable, will damage or destroy large swaths of Oregon’s electrical grid. How long will it take to get the juice flowing again? Weeks? Months? Professor Ted Brekken and his team are applying high-powered simulations to find out and to identify which parts of the system should be hardened against the quake at any cost.
How do you manage a COVID-19 surge? When intensive care units are beyond capacity, health care workers are stretched thin, and life-saving equipment is in short supply, there are a lot of tough choices to be made, and quickly. Joe Agor, assistant professor of industrial engineering, is gathering the data on how hospitals prepared and responded to the pandemic, as well as how their patients fared, with the goal of helping to better manage surge capacity for future pandemics or disasters.
How can we get a more diverse group of young people interested in computer science? Focus on equity, says Jill Hubbard, instructor of computer science and co-principal investigator of a multi-university project to change how computer science is taught in high school, funded by the National Science Foundation. Over 40 schools are part of a program to make computer science more welcoming to underrepresented groups.
Can middle schoolers learn computer science concepts using tabletop games? How about during a pandemic, when classroom interaction takes place remotely? Researchers in computer science and education are working closely with teachers to develop an innovative curriculum designed to broaden participation in computer science classes.
What can wastewater tell us about the spread of disease? Could the coronavirus’ signature RNA sequence tip public health officials to where the next COVID-19 outbreaks will occur? In this episode, we’ll talk to two researchers who are leading the effort to monitor Oregon’s wastewater streams for coronavirus, in partnership with treatment facilities throughout the state.
What’s life like for long-haul truck drivers in a COVID-19 world? We’ll get behind-the-wheel perspectives from driver (and musician) Paul Marhoefer and from Associate Professor Sal Hernandez who’s looking into how drivers have adapted to demanding conditions caused by the pandemic and the resiliency of the nation’s freight system.
Self-driving cars and planes are in our future. What are we doing to make them safe? Assistant Professor Houssam Abbas uses tiny race cars to test autonomous driving systems. And Oregon State graduate Robert Rose is using his past experience with SpaceX to develop a safe system to automate existing aircraft.
What will it take for robot assistants to become more integrated in our daily lives? Assistant Professor Naomi Fitter thinks they’ll need to master the physical aspects of social interactions, while Associate Professor Cindy Grimm cautions against programming them to behave just like us.
Will robots someday replace farm workers? Do we want them to? Assistant Professor and agricultural robotics expert Joe Davidson talks about the potential benefits of using robots in agriculture, and what goes into designing the perfect robotic apple picker.
Why should robots have artificial social intelligence? According to Heather Knight, assistant professor of computer science, if robots are going to help in hospitals or work with people in factories, they will need to be adapted to our social conventions.
For robots to be more useful around people, they’ll need to go where we go. But how? Associate Professor Jonathan Hurst thinks the answer is simple. Walking. But actually making a walking robot is no simple feat.
For robots to be more useful around people, they’ll need to go where we go. But how? Associate Professor Jonathan Hurst thinks the answer is simple. Walking. But actually making a walking robot is no simple feat.
Can we trust artificial intelligence to make good decisions? The answer is a resounding maybe. More and more, society and individuals are entrusting AI to make potentially life-changing decisions. Rather than putting blind trust in the judgment of these remarkable systems, Alan Fern and a team of computer scientists want to reveal their reasoning processes.
How do you combine ethics, policy, and practicality into the design of revolutionary robotics and artificial intelligence systems? Researchers Kagan Tumer and Tom Dietterich are collaborating to find out as they help lead the Oregon State Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute.
Geoff Hollinger, associate professor of mechanical engineering, is teaching underwater robots to use human preferences to take on risk as they complete their scientific missions.
What can be done to protect workers in one of the most dangerous industries on Earth? For much of his career, John Gambatese has studied, developed and evaluated a wide range of options designed to keep construction workers out of harm’s way.
Advances in 3D graphics have made movies and video games more realistic, but can also have an impact on science. Associate Professor Eugene Zhang and Assistant Professor Yue Zhang describe their research to help medical doctors better target cancerous tumors by using 3D modeling and simulation.
How can we help in the fight against Parkinson’s disease? Harriet Nembhard and her colleagues developed a sensor system to detect the disease early on, opening the door to earlier treatment and improved quality of life. Nembhard is the head of the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering and Eric R. Smith Professor of Engineering.
Aid workers put their lives on the line to treat patients with Ebola. Can robots help make their jobs a little easier and allow more people to survive the disease? Bill Smart, professor of robotics at Oregon State University, is exploring how robots may be most useful during disease outbreaks.
What makes a frog’s tongue sticky, or a snake’s skin slippery? Joe Baio, assistant professor of bioengineering, looks to nature for substances that could provide clues to developing new biomedical adhesives and anti-fouling surfaces.
Ever wonder why so many truckers park their rigs on highway off-ramps, in retail store parking lots and at other odd locations? It’s not their first choice, and it’s not the safest choice either, but sometimes it’s their only choice. Research by Sal Hernandez reveals that the national truck parking shortage takes an enormous toll on people and commerce.
How can we support nuclear medicine efforts that help more than 40,000 people in the U.S. everyday? Researchers at the Oregon State University College of Engineering have developed a way to produce the much-needed radioisotope technetium-99m using small research reactors like the one here at the university.
Can turning seawater into drinking water be a cost-effective way to provide clean, fresh water for the growing numbers of people facing water scarcity? Bahman Abbasi, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is taking up that challenge with a mobile, modular, solar-powered, desalination system.
Bonus content
How can we remove toxic contaminants like TNT from groundwater? Jack Istok and Mandy Michalsen are using pioneering bioremediation and bioaugmentation methods developed here at Oregon State to restore the groundwater at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.
BONUS CONTENT * Underground Story of Water in Oregon * Umatilla Army Depot Superfund Site * Groundwater Research Lab * “Clean Water for a Thirsty Region” * “Evaluation of Biostimulation and Bioaugmentation to Stimulate RDX Degradation in an Aerobic Groundwater Aquifer” * “RDX Degradation in Bioaugmented Model Aquifer Columns under Aerobic and Low Oxygen Conditions”
How do you ensure a product designed for the developing world is useful for the people it’s intended to help? A team of researchers, led by Nordica MacCarty, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is combining engineering with anthropology in field tests of a water purification system.
How can students at Oregon State improve access clean water for rural communities around the world? We hear from three students who worked in Nicaragua and Cambodia on projects that changed people’s lives -- including their own.
How long will the world’s supply of clean fresh water last? Just the fact that we have to ask that question is enough to start worrying, as threats from pollution, climate change, and overpopulation continue to get worse. Fortunately, researchers like Tyler Radniecki are at the vanguard of the search for solutions to revive and restore this precious resource.
How can we clean up pollution from toxic chemicals that have seeped into the groundwater, hundreds of feet below the surface? Lewis Semprini, Distinguished Professor of environmental engineering, discusses strategies for bioremediation, using microorganisms to break down dangerous chemicals into harmless end-products.
How does culture influence engineering design? Two seniors in civil engineering tell about how they incorporated their research on the culture of Ethiopia into the design of a housing structure, an irrigation system, and a restroom.
Javier Calvo-Amodio, Sage Kittelman, and Siqi Wang examine how teams and their communications function as systems within large, complex organizations. They are working with Boeing to understand how those systems can be improved to make manufacturing more efficient.
Can clean and renewable energy sources like wind and solar power reduce our dependence on fossil fuels? One major challenge is figuring out how to make that energy available when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. Lynza Sprowl, a chemical engineering Ph.D. student, says the key is building better batteries.
Will a new breed of highly mobile, radiation-resistant soft robots become automated work horses for the nuclear industry—or save the day during nuclear disasters? A team of graduate students from Oregon State University wants to make sure they’re up to the task.
How can two undergraduates impact the health of people with mental illness? Inspired by her own experience with bipolar disorder, Alison Bowden from Oregon State University created an app to help manage the daily challenges of living with mental illness. She co-founded Wellio with Houston Morgan from Arizona State University.
How do you quickly calculate a worker's radiation skin dose in the event of exposure? VARSKIN--maintained and updated at Oregon State--is one of the main computer codes used by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and undergrad Logan Anspach's peer-reviewed paper examines how it stacks up against other tools.
How do you prove a country tested a nuclear weapon, and who’s keeping an eye on this stuff? Researchers at Oregon State and University of Michigan are part of the crew doing this work.
How are Oregon State researchers impacting the apps on your phone? Danny Dig and his team have been improving software for companies like Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Boeing, and Google for years by developing tools that find and fix bugs. Dig is an associate professor of computer science at Oregon State and an adjunct professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
How do you help reduce risk in the nation's most dangerous occupation? Researchers at Oregon State University are partnering with Blount International to help make timber harvesting equipment safer. To understand a specific type of accident that occurs in the field, they’ve designed and built a machine to recreate it in the safety of a shipping container.
How do you harness the energy of the ocean? Oregon State alumni Alex Hagmuller and Max Ginsburg cofounded Aquaharmonics to try and figure it out: starting with a wave energy device prototype they tested in a bathtub. Today, they're backed by millions of dollars from the U.S. Department of Energy, partnering with Sandia National Laboratories, and are on course for ocean testing with a full-size wave energy converting buoy.
Can you build skyscrapers or other massive structures with wood? Mass timber buildings are changing skylines and changing the way engineers and architects think about building big with wood. They go up faster than steel and concrete. They cost less. They’re made from sustainable resources, and they’re getting taller and taller.
How do you talk to a robot? How about 250 robots? Julie A. Adams, professor of computer science, describes her research on human-robot interaction and the benefits and challenges of drone swarms.
Cyberattacks are getting more frequent, bigger, and more destructive. New research at Oregon State University aims to stop hackers by combining the muscle power of artificial intelligence with the brains of cybersecurity experts. The project is led by Galois Inc. and includes collaborators at University of Edinburgh and Synaptiq.
How can we prepare most effectively for the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake? An interactive website called O-HELP, developed by Oregon State researchers, zooms in to any point in Oregon and displays the various risks, giving planning agencies, utilities, and individuals a head start.
BONUS CONTENT * O-HELP * Cascadia Lifelines Program * Living with Earthquakes in the Pacific Northwest * Preparing for the Cascadia Earthquake
How do you forecast and model huge waves in the open ocean? As part of the National Marine Renewable Energy Center, researchers at Oregon State University and the University of Washington are modeling and forecasting extreme waves to help inform wave energy technology.
Is it possible to revolutionize nuclear power in the United States? Oregon State Nuclear Engineering Professor Jose Reyes co-founded NuScale Power to do just that. He's joined by fellow Oregon State Nuclear Engineering Professors Qiao Wu and Todd Palmer to discuss NuScale's revolutionary reactor design and its test facility here on campus.
Are faster networks with more users and devices possible? Researchers at Oregon State with help from Tektronix are advancing technologies to push the boundaries of speed in data collection and transmission. Matt Johnston, Arun Natarajan, and Tejasvi Anand explain their research that spans the networking chain from sensors to wireless and wired transmission.
Goran Jovanovic, professor of chemical engineering at Oregon State, was interested in finding ways to convert carbon dioxide into useful products using renewable energy. When the U.S. Department of Energy rejected a proposal in 2005, Jovanovic sent out an email to former Ph.D. students around the world, looking for potential collaborators. A copy of that email landed in the inbox of Thana Sornchamni, leading to an enduring and mutually beneficial partnership with PTT, Thailand’s biggest industrial giant.
What are magnetic nanoparticles and how can they be used in medicine? Oregon State Associate Professor Pallavi Dhagat and graduate student Phil Lenox explain the very sensitive techniques they are developing using magnetic nanoparticles to detect a biomarker for disease in just a drop of blood or look deep inside the human body.
Biosensor technology is used to detect a wide variety of substances — from drugs, to cancer biomarkers, to chemical contaminants in our food and drinking water. Diatoms — tiny, single-celled plants found in water all over the planet — are playing a big role in a new type of biosensor being developed by Alan Wang at Oregon State. The new technology has a high selectivity and sensitivity, and is much less expensive than traditional methods of detection.
How do you prove someone tested a nuclear weapon? Researchers, Steven Czyz, Lily Ranjbar, and Salam Alhawsawi from the Radiation Detection Group at Oregon State are developing devices smaller than Pop-Tarts that use the metallic alloy CZT to detect radioactive isotopes of the noble gas xenon. This helps prove if someone tested a weapon, supporting the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) that's been signed by 183 nation states.
Advances in 3D graphics have made movies and video games more realistic, but can also have an impact on science. Associate Professor Eugene Zhang and Assistant Professor Yue Zhang describe their research to help medical doctors better target cancerous tumors by using 3D modeling and simulation.
It’s no secret that women and minorities have historically been underrepresented in science and engineering and have faced a lot of bias upon entering those fields. But what is Oregon State University doing to change that? To find out, we talk to Joe McGuire, one of the College of Engineering’s associate deans, and Anne Gillies, the search advocate program director at Oregon State about how they are building an inclusive environment.
To learn about the efforts to recruit and retain more students of underrepresented groups we talk to Ellen Momsen, director of the Women and Minorities in Engineering program and Kameron Kadooka, the coordinator of the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program. We also hear from alumni, Patricia Walsh, Janice Levenhagen-Seeley and Justin Conner about their experiences at Oregon State. Janice describes ChickTech, the non-profit she founded to recruit and retain more girls and women in technology fields.
In this week's episode, we feature two stories from the Oregon State Robotics Group.
Ravi Balasubramanian, mechanical engineering assistant professor, is designing robo-inspired implantable mechanisms to improve orthopedic surgeries of all types--with a specific focus on tendon transfer surgery related to restoring function of the hand. We talk with him in part 1.
In part 2, we explore Project Chiron, a kit that turns a mechanized wheelchair into a self-driving wheelchair to help those with ALS. It's being developed by Bill Smart, mechanical engineering associate professor, and his graduate student Benjamin Narin.
In this episode, we hear from Greg Herman, professor of chemical engineering, about a sensor he's developed that has the potential to monitor glucose levels via a contact lens.
In Part 2, we explore the research of John Mathews, professor and head of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer science, whose goal is to enable people with serious spinal cord injuries to regain the use of paralyzed limbs.
Nordica MacCarty, a faculty member in the Humanitarian Engineering Program at Oregon State, talks about improving the lives of women and children in the developing world through cleaner-burning cook stove technology. We also follow the unlikely journey taken by assistant professor Chinweike Eseonu, three women from the tiny town of Monroe, Oregon, Spanish instructor Loren Chavarria, and three determined engineering students, all made possible by some tasty Mexican food.
In part one, we’ll uncover the extreme challenges of air travel for people with disabilities, the risky measures they take in order to fly, and the serious harm they face every time they board an aircraft. And we’ll meet Associate Professor Katharine Hunter-Zaworski who, for more than three decades, has been is fighting to remove barriers and improve access to transportation for people with disabilities.
By observing crashes, researchers can make recommendations on how to prevent them and ultimately make roads safer for more users. Crashes, however, are difficult to predict and to observe. In part two, we tour the Driving and Bicycling Simulator where Associate Professor David Hurwitz conducts experiments on right-hook crashes in a virtual environment.
Inclusivity means listening to all voices — creating a beautiful polyphonic sound. Learn about Distinguished Professor Margaret Burnett’s mission to change the way software is designed to be more gender inclusive. Also, meet her former student Kyle Rector, now at University of Iowa, who designed software to help people with vision impairments learn yoga.
In part one, we meet computer science Assistant Professor Stephen Ramsey, who uses computational modeling to look deep into the human genome. His goal: predict who among us is more susceptible to heart disease. The information could determine not only who will benefit most from preventive action, but may even lead to new drugs for treating cardiovascular disease.
We then shift from humans to the world of plants and animals with Ph.D. student Caitlin Condon and Ph.D. candidate Delvan Neville from the Radioecology Research Group in the School of Nuclear Science and Engineering. They are both creating voxel phantom models: Caitlin for pine trees, and Delvan for marine life. By creating these 3-D models, they hope to begin to much more accurately understand radiation dose rates in biota.
The Monte Carlo method conjures images of a suave gambler beating the house in Monaco. In reality, Monte Carlo methods are computational algorithms that use randomness to solve problems.
In this episode we hear from Todd Palmer, professor of nuclear engineering, about his use of Monte Carlo simulations in nuclear power. In addition, find out how Haizhong Wang, assistant professor in transportation engineering, is incorporating Monte Carlo to model tsunami evacuation routes in the Cascadia Subduction Zone.
In this episode, we find out how researchers are utilizing unmanned autonomous vehicles (UAVs) to gather data.
Dr. Dan Gillins, affiliated faculty member, along with his brother Matt Gillins, a graduate student at Oregon State, is conducting research on the feasibility of using UAVs to conduct bridge inspections. Gillins’ research seeks to determine if UAVs can help defray some of the cost and eliminate some of the risk involved with traditional bridge inspections.
COE postdoctoral researcher Dr. Eric Becker developed a UAV-mounted Radiation Compass that maps radiation sources autonomously in real time. The Radiation Compass weighs only 650 grams and can be built for $3,000 giving it a major advantage over current detectors.
The age of Big Data and cloud computing has created greater demand for advanced cryptography. To store data on the cloud safely it must be encrypted; in order to use the data it needs to be decrypted, at which point it becomes vulnerable to attacks. Professors Mike Rosulek and Attila Yavuz are finding new ways to perform operations on encrypted data without leaking critical information.
Professor Glencora Borradaille teaches workshops and a new class on personal computer security to empower people to protect their own data. With community organizer Michele Charrete, she explains why people should be concerned about security and how to use tools encrypting email and anonymous web browsing.
Xiaoli Fern, associate professor in computer science, explains how she and her team are using machine learning and bird song recordings to help biologists track bird populations. Plus, Geoff Hollinger, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is teaching underwater robots to use human preferences to take on risk as they complete their scientific missions.
What is data science and engineering? To kick off the podcast season on this topic, Tom Dietterich, distinguished professor of computer science, explains what it is, how it is related to Big Data, and shares his thoughts on the pros and cons.
The teaser for Engineering Out Loud--a brand new podcast from the College of Engineering at Oregon State University. We're telling the stories of how our research and innovation is helping change the world.