Gregory Ten Eyck
Finalist for 2007 Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize
All students set out to change the world, but Gregory Ten Eyck could actually do it. His inventions could be the link that researchers have been looking for to create safe and efficient fuel cells, reduce the impacts of carbon dioxide on our environment, and create the next generate of super-small, super-efficient microelectronics.
As an Eagle Scout, it is no surprise that Ten Eyck would be an inventive young man with a deep respect for the environment, but this IGERT fellow has taken these values to a level higher than anyone would have thought possible. A 4.0 student, born leader, entrepreneur, and award-winning engineer, Ten Eyck truly has a bright future ahead of him.
His research focuses on the interconnections within electronic circuitry. He has invented three methods that could have broad implications for the next generation of microelectronics, as well as enormous implications for energy and the environment.
First, Ten Eyck developed a method to deposit metals on polymers. This application of atomic layer deposition (ALD) has been envisioned by scientists for years as a way to improve circuit function and reduce circuit size, but has never before been accomplished. Ten Eyck’s ALD process will enable industry to create devices that were thought to be years in the future.
Using his expertise in metal ALD, Ten Eyck created large metal surfaces with thin, uniform layers of metal over a porous insulating material to create a highly efficient energy storing surface. He then took this invention a big step further, creating a surface that could transform carbon dioxide to methane gas at room temperature. Such a conversion normally requires temperatures upward of 300 degrees Celsius. This key breakthrough has the potential to transform harmful greenhouse gases into useful natural gas. The process could allow for the production of new energy storage devices and conversion technologies such as fuel cells.
Ten Eyck also has created a novel way of connecting circuits that greatly reduces the size of the circuit and can improve device performance. In order to keep making smaller electronics, manufacturers need smaller integrated circuits. One method to reduce circuit size is to stack circuits using nano-rods that can be welded between circuits to connect them electrically. The problem to date with this process is that the welding requires high temperatures or a mixing of metals that can damage circuit performance. Ten Eyck and fellow graduate students have created a nano-welding process that welds at a reduced temperature. This advance will allow manufactures to use highly efficient, pure metals like copper without the need for incorporating metals that have a lower melting point like lead that have negative environmental impacts and inhibit proper circuit function.
Eben Bayer
Finalist for 2007 Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize
Many would expect the son of a successful farmer to follow in his father’s footsteps, and in many ways Eben Bayer, a senior in mechanical engineering and product design and innovation at Rensselaer, is doing just that.
Bayer’s family farm is not typical. It produces up to 900 gallons of maple syrup a year on renewable, environmentally friendly technology. And Bayer is not your typical engineer. When not making syrup, he and his father can often be found in the woods hunting wild mushrooms.He used his knowledge of the Earth and fungal growth to create a revolutionary organic insulation that is cost-effective, protects the environment, and saves energy.
Organic insulation could replace traditional foam insulation, which carries substantial economic and environmental costs. Organic insulation is completely biodegradable and can be composted without any post-processing.
When Bayer envisioned organic insulation, he used his intimate knowledge of how fungus grows to create a new material that is inexpensive, holds its shape, can be produced locally, and is environmentally friendly. To create organic insulation, Bayer combined water, flour, minerals, and mushroom spores. Thanks to his knowledge of mushroom growth, he was able to create a tightly meshed network of mineral and mycelium, the vegetative growth stage of a fungus that can be dried to prevent fungal growth and molded into sheets suitable for home or commercial insulation.
Bayer has a vision for creating organic building materials that can be used to create inexpensive, strong, and sustainable “Growable Homes.” This could help in developing nations where there are pressing needs for inexpensive housing or in areas following a disaster where temporary housing is essential.
Bayer’s environmental inventiveness spans well beyond organic insulation. He put his engineering skills to use to create a resonance wind collector. Unlike conventional wind turbines, Bayer’s wind collector has no moving parts. This allows it to operate at very high wind speeds where more energy is available. Bayer envisions it as a new low-maintenance method of producing renewable energy.
He is also interested in education and child development. Bayer co-invented a child location device designed specifically for children with special needs to gives parents peace of mind while allowing children to explore their surroundings. He developed a Web program that allows younger students to play virtual instruments using only a Web cam and their bodies, teaching them music skills and improving their intelligence.
Bayer is both a team player and an independent thinker, making people around him believe in the impossible. He brings humor and a true commitment to environmental protection and social responsibility to every project he sets out to complete.
Ludovico “Ludo” Dell’Acqua-Bellavitis
Finalist for 2007 Lemelson-Rensselaer Student Prize
Many Rensselaer students are well-rounded, but Ludovico Dell’Acqua-Bellavitis takes this concept 10giant steps further than the average student. Ludo is fluent in both English and Italian, a proficient horseman, rower, and active downhill skier, has lived and learned in three different countries, and already holds three very diverse degrees: a B.S. in psychology from UniversityCollege in London, a M.S. in materials science and engineering from Rensselaer, and an MBA from Rensselaer. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate in engineering science.
Ludo fervently endorses the convergence of the physical and life sciences to address deep intellectual challenges relevant to current societal and technological needs. He has focused his current research efforts to create a class of lab-on-a-chip devices that leverage nanotechnology to study neurons and neural communication in a minimallyinvasive fashion, with enhanced signal discrimination and resolution. Lab-on-a-chip devices integrate multiple laboratory functions within minute chips used in microelectronics. Ludo’s devices are designed to both record and stimulate neural activity in the single cell and between multiple neighboring cells.
His lab-on-a-chip devices hold promise to account for cell behavior at the molecular, microscopic, and mesoscopic levels. To date, the fundamental nature of cell communication has remained elusive because it has been addressed at different length scales using very different methodologies and equipment. By contrast, Ludo’s efforts lie in the development of very similar devices thatonly differ with respect to the feature size of the electrodes.
His approach can be extended to the study of diseases such asHIV and cancer, in an effort to understand how they spread within a biological system. In addition, his study of massively parallel neural networks is promising not only to unveil the foundations of biological intelligence, but also to replicate them in form of algorithms within synthetic automata.
Prior to this important research program, Ludo worked to understand how carbon nanotubes are formed during chemical vapor deposition (CVD), in an effort to use these structures for his lab-on-a-chip neural devices. Carbon nanotubes are nanometer-scale, wirelike structures that are attractive to many scientists because of their strength, electrical properties, and ability to easily conduct heat. Ludo developed a process to analyze the growth process in real-time, helping to pave the way toward higher-quality carbon nanotubes, with the ability to outperform technological solutions currently available on the market.
Well-respected by his peers, Ludo is combining his knowledge of nanotechnology, neuroscience, business, and engineering to create new technologies that address fundamental questions relatedto biological intelligence, andhelping to herald in the next generation ofsmart computers.