With 5,000 tiny robots in a mountaintop telescope, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) collects and measures light from faraway space objects, granting scientists the ability to peer 11 billion years into the past. Studying how the cosmos evolved is important to understand how it began and might end, and opens up further questions about dark energy, an unknown ingredient causing our universe to expand faster and faster. 

To study dark energy’s effects over the last 11 billion years, DESI recently created the largest 3D map of the universe ever constructed, marking the first time that scientists have measured the expansion history of the universe in that early period. Such precise results have revealed unprecedented new hints about how the young universe might have evolved.

DESI, an international collaboration involving more than 900 scientists from over 70 institutions around the world, is managed by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and includes large contributions from its Ohio State members. Led by physics professor Klaus Honscheid and astronomy and physics professor Paul Martini, the group now includes professors, research scientists, and graduate and undergraduate students from across the university.

Two Ohio State members, Andrei Cuceu, a postdoctoral fellow in astronomy and co-convener of the Lyman alpha science working group who led efforts to validate the instrument’s latest results, and Ashley Ross, a research scientist at the university’s Center for Cosmology and AstroParticle Physics and co-lead of the group that prepared DESI’s map for interpretation and accounted for changes in the instrument's performance, were integral to the recent DESI discoveries. 

“DESI looks at a wide range of times across the history of the universe and our work looked at some of those most distant measurements,” said Cuceu. “We did this by measuring a feature called baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), minute ripple patterns that the universe provides that indicate the distribution of matter as it evolves.”

Large-scale surveys have used BAO measurements as cosmic rulers to map universe expansion in great detail, as researchers can get a better grasp of how dark energy may have stretched the universe at certain points and distances in time by comparing how they ripple through space. In a study led by Cuceu, one team used them to confirm the accuracy of 150 artificial datasets made to mimic DESI’s first data release, eventually concluding that the instrument’s findings were accurate throughout many different cosmological constraints. 

“We threw it at many different types of models and decisions across the analysis process, and it always seemed to generate roughly the same end result,” said Cuceu. Their findings are monumental because they show that DESI’s results provide tantalizing suggestions that call into question both typical models of cosmology and scientists’ current ideas about how physics works, said Ross.

“One of the experiment’s goals is to essentially explore the nature of dark energy and if it changes over time,” he said. “These first DESI results offer a hint that it might not be a cosmological constant.”

DESI’s first research findings are presented throughout multiple papers, which can be found on the instrument’s data documentation site.

Beyond dark energy, DESI has also been used to study many other cosmological mysteries important for physics, such as the mass of important particles called neutrinos and how individual galaxies develop over time. Martini, who was the instrument scientist for DESI during its construction and commissioning, said that what makes DESI’s results so groundbreaking is the depth of the instrument’s analysis. 

“The improvement that we have managed to achieve is really driven not just by the fact that we have 10 times as much data as previous projects, but also that we took time to really understand the steps and potential sources of uncertainty much better,” Martini said.

This analysis covers data collected from 2021 to 2022, and DESI has been collecting new data ever since, meaning there are now three years of promising new data for scientists to comb through. 

“For now, we’re experimenting in a new era of cosmology,” said Cuceu. 

Toward the end of the decade, the data DESI continues to collect will also be used to complement next-generation sky surveys, such as the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. As those instruments collect more precise data and scientists get to work decoding their results, many are confident that even more exciting pieces of the universe’s ever-changing cosmic puzzle will be revealed. 

“It is a really exciting result that could indicate a significant change in our understanding of the universe, and the fact that we see these hints about dark energy gives us fuel to keep going,” said Honscheid, who is the current DESI instrument scientist and instrument operations lead. “The future looks extremely bright for DESI and other long-term experiments like this one.”

​DESI is supported by the DOE Office of Science and by the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science user facility. Additional support for DESI is provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Science and Technology Facilities Council of the United Kingdom, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), the National Council of Science and Technology of Mexico, the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain, and by the DESI member institutions. 

The DESI collaboration is honored to be permitted to conduct research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak), a mountain with particular significance to Tohono O’odham Nation.

However, not all communities are able to equally participate in this transition.

Underserved communities, in particular, often encounter barriers when shifting to newer, electrified energy and transportation systems. Many of these neighborhoods have already experienced various socioeconomic challenges and exposure to existing pollutants and potential adverse health outcomes.

Researchers at The Ohio State University are working to alleviate some of these inequities and improve the quality of life for residents in these communities.

The Facilitating Local Electrified Energy and Transportation Services for All (FLEETS for All) project will engage citizens in 15 underserved central Ohio communities to address specific challenges these neighborhoods face during this energy transition. The project will seek to understand needs and opportunities for electrified energy and mobility options to improve health, environmental and social conditions within these populations.

Jeffrey Bielicki, associate professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs, serves as principal investigator for the project. He emphasized FLEETS for All’s intention to improve outcomes for those at the margins regarding electrified mobility and home appliances.

“These communities’ ability to participate in the energy transition is unequal,” said Bielicki.

The FLEETS for All project is part of an $11 million grant awarded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Bielicki and his collaborators at Ohio State received $1.1 million to conduct their research, joining 10 other institutions to investigate drivers and environmental impacts of energy transitions in underserved and tribal communities nationwide.

Bielicki stated that underserved neighborhoods often have increased exposure to potential toxins and other contamination due to factors such as polluting infrastructure located nearby and a heavier reliance on public transportation than more affluent communities.

“For example, while waiting for a bus, someone who stands on the side of the road inhales exhaust from all the cars, trucks and buses that pass by,” he said. 

Having more electric vehicles (EVs) on the road would eliminate emissions from many dispersed sources. The ensuing emissions from a single static power plant are more easily captured than those from many small mobile sources of pollution.

Electric vehicles are surging in popularity nationwide. But can citizens in these communities equally benefit from EVs?

Recent data provided on bumper.com showed that the overwhelming majority of charging infrastructure in the United States is located in predominantly white neighborhoods. The study also illustrated disparities in the availability of EV chargers based on individual incomes.

“Not only are we trying to transition away from certain ways of moving ourselves by touting electric mobility, we want to do it in a way that doesn’t further marginalize people,” said Bielicki, noting the need for increased deployment of EV infrastructure in underserved neighborhoods.

The Ohio State research team will employ surveys and focus groups to measure residents’ attitudes toward making a household change such as replacing a natural gas-burning stove, which often emits unvented carbon dioxide and methane, with a new electric one.

“We need to learn where people are coming from,” offered Bielicki, referring to various elements like budgetary considerations, cultural perceptions and structural constraints, such as renting versus owning a home, that influence consumers’ decisions to adopt or not to adopt a new technology.

This community-centered approach to energy transition also includes collaborators from Franklin County Public Health, the City of Columbus - Sustainable Columbus, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission and the Electrification Coalition.

Bielicki’s team intends to help policymakers assess the effectiveness of current efforts to bring more resilient services and products to communities. Project data can be utilized to develop sound investment and deployment strategies for new electric infrastructure and services that reduce adverse environmental effects and potential health risks.

“If you’re transitioning to electrified options, you’re going to have a higher input demand for electricity,” he said. “So we need to think about what the regional electricity grid might look like. So, that as we build up a grid, we’re doing it in ways that improve health, environmental and social conditions.”

Bielicki noted that many of the communities selected for this project exhibit hallmark effects of being marginalized, including having higher incidences of asthma, higher infant mortality rates and lower life expectancy than Franklin County as a whole.

“Furthermore, the consequences of climate change have not been evenly distributed,” he added.

He emphasized that FLEETS for All’s objective is to ensure that benefits these new technologies may yield are more evenly shared among communities.

The interdisciplinary team of collaborators at Ohio State includes expertise in air quality, transportation, energy, sociology and public health: Assistant Professor Daniel Gingerich (Civil, Environmental and Geodetic Engineering [CEGE]), Professor Darryl Hood (Environmental Health Sciences), Associate Professor Jeffrey Jacquet (Environment and Natural Resources), Assistant Professor Huyen Le (Geography), Associate Professor Andy May (CEGE) and Martina Leveni (College of Engineering Legacy Postdoctoral Scholar, CEGE).

Bielicki sees potential for the investigation of other topics, like institutional and policy analysis and resilience and greening infrastructure, that may evolve from studies like this one.

He and his collaborators look forward to engaging community members in this grassroots effort.

“We’re seeking to build capacity in the communities,” he said. “And it’s not just us saying that the community should do it. It’s us working with people, sharing the leadership of the project.”

In the College of Education and Human Ecology (EHE), undergraduate students who are preparing to become middle and high school English and journalism teachers use virtual reality to visualize the concepts they’re studying, said Professor Detra Price-Dennis.

“The focus of our course is new media and journalism,” she said. “One way to help them think about new media journalism is to actually have lots of experiences with media-making and thinking about using the tool to tell a story.”

Price-Dennis curated a virtual gallery based on concepts related to new media and journalism.

After students explored the virtual gallery with VR headsets, Price-Dennis “then gave them an opportunity to create a portal to their own personal space where they curated a collection of artifacts that they had made throughout the course that speak to their understanding of the potential and role of new media and journalism with their pedagogy.”

Price-Dennis said she encourages her students to consider the opportunities that virtual reality presents to enhance the learning environment, as well as challenges for students in districts with limited access to advanced technology.

In designing curriculum, future teachers should “think about the affordances of this particular tool and the barriers that it might create for different student populations,” she said. “They need to have a really robust, engaged experience (with virtual reality) as future teachers, so they could think about how do they integrate the curriculum with this technology?”

Nurse-led research to improve patient outcomes

The College of Nursing employs virtual reality as one method to train future health care professionals, said Michael Ackerman, a clinical professor and director of the Master of Healthcare Innovation Program.  

“We’ve had a long history of simulation at the college, and we’ve had the traditional simulation center where it’s really manikin-based,” he said, referring to medical equipment that simulates human bodies. “About two or three years ago, I really thought that we needed to move towards – we call it extended reality – because it’s not just virtual reality, it’s a continuum of different types of reality.”

The College of Nursing received a grant from the American Nurses Association’s Reimagining Nursing Initiative. The college was one of just 10 awardees nationwide that received a total of $14 million to design projects led by nurses to improve patient access, care and outcomes, according to the organization’s website.

The College of Nursing partnered with College of Engineering Professor Mike Rayo to deploy a program he created that assists nurses in analyzing patient data and projecting future treatment needs.

“Every one of our 670 undergraduate students had at least one simulation, and most of them had more simulations in virtual reality, anywhere from patient scenarios to soft skill training, to community health,” Ackerman said. “We have a scenario on homelessness and what it’s like to be a homeless person. That was the project, and we’re starting year two.”

Collaborating across disciplines

The College of Arts and Sciences Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) also administers several research projects with virtual reality components. One of those projects, “Eyes of Mariam VR,” is an interactive experience that follows the journey of a fictional character named Mariam. The character is an African teenage girl who faces traumatic events that threaten her goal of getting an education. The project is supported by an interdisciplinary research pilot award from Ohio State’s Translational Data Analytics Institute.

“The power of virtual reality, compared to other mediums, is the ability to really step in the shoes and experience reality from the perspective of another person,” said Shadrick Addy, an assistant professor in the Department of Design who is a native of Liberia. In the “Eyes of Mariam VR” project, “you kind of go through that experience of trying to navigate the consequences of not having access to education during a traumatic time for these students.”

Other projects that ACCAD supports include Vascular Surgery VR, which enables medical residents to analyze data for training purposes.

“One of the things about using virtual reality is that it requires expertise from different disciplines,” Addy said. “By working on these projects, I’m able to work with people from computer science, from statistics, people from communication departments, and so forth. This really allows us to be able to collaborate and extend our reach. The more minds that you have, the more expertise that you have on the team working on these projects, the more meaningful it becomes.”

“The wonderful thing about fungi is they fulfill so many niches,” said Mitchell Roth, lead author of the review and an assistant professor of plant pathology at The Ohio State University. “They can be found everywhere, and a lot of times you’ll find fungi that have already adapted to survive in unlikely environments.”

Recently, scientists have made incredible breakthroughs in the field, and thanks to the popular HBO adaptation The Last of Us, fungi may finally be getting the recognition they deserve, said Roth. “There’s so much potential in fungal biotechnology that we haven’t tapped into,” he said. “We’ve only just scraped the surface of fungal biotechnology, so this paper is a little bit of a call to action.”

Fungal advancements have already led to breakthroughs in a variety of industrial and domestic settings, most notably in medicine via the development of new drugs (such as penicillin or lovastatin) as a biological control against pathogens, and in society when used to ferment certain food and drink. 

The paper, published in the journal Frontiers in Fungal Biology. highlights how further research into the field of mycology – the study of fungi – could aid in the discovery and application of many newly emerging biotechnologies.

For example, intertwining biotech and mycology could stimulate the development of bioinformatic tools and sustainable biomaterials, such as machine learning algorithms for predicting mycological patterns, or the creation of fungal batteries. Additionally, because fungi are so common, promising biotechnologies could likely be produced on a large scale. 

But Roth, who works at the Wooster campus of the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at Ohio State, is focused on how some fungi become pathogens and spread disease. He said that many of these potential leaps have only become possible due to advances in scientists’ ability to sequence their DNA.

“By comparing the genomes of different fungi, you can really start to understand what genes are involved in which processes,“ he said. “Now you can go into the lab, study them, change a few genes around, and make a fungus even better at performing a specific task.”

But that’s not to say researchers won’t run into any challenges in their quest to develop uses for fungi. Due to ranging sizes of fungal genomes and their repetitive genetic sequences, the study notes that it’s been difficult to identify and study them in their entirety. It’s only due to the advent of long-read sequencing technologies like Nanopore and PacBio, which currently enable the sequencing of longer fragments of DNA, that fungal genetics research has become so broad, said Roth. 

Still, while being able to manipulate fungal genomes would be beneficial for a number of tech industries, such advancements are unlikely to occur without a significant amount of time, funding and technological support.

“Scientists can have all these ideas and curiosities about fungi and want to study them further, but it’s really challenging and it’s very expensive,” said Roth. “And unfortunately, people aren't always aware of what we can do with them.” 

Co-authors of the paper were Nathaniel Westrick of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Thomas Baldwin of North Dakota State University. 

That triage scenario is tragic, but it’s also very real. Training first responders how to act in situations like this can be expensive, time consuming and difficult to repeat.

But thanks to an immersive new virtual reality program developed by Ohio State’s Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) and the College of Medicine, first responders can now get quick, repeatable training for disaster scenarios.

“It’s the rapid decision-making when you have multiple patients that is really difficult for [first responders] to practice,” said Vita Berezina-Blackburn, a senior creative technologist at ACCAD.

The new software, known as First Responder VR, was successfully completed after five years of development and user testing, and places a trainee in the middle of a chaotic scene. The trainee dons a VR headset and holds a controller in each hand, allowing them to interact with their environment.

When the simulation begins, trainees are transported to a subway station rendered in high-quality graphics. People lie on the floor with varying injuries. Some are minor, others catastrophic. The trainee can give the patients verbal commands with voice recognition technology, walk up to them, check their pulse and administer multiple types of first aid with a virtual triage kit that hovers at their side.

From start to finish, the entire program might take 15-20 minutes. Compared to “Disaster Day” training scenarios that involve complex set-building, large amounts of space and paid actors, the benefits of ACCAD’s virtual reality program are easy to see. And the program has benefits for the trainees as well as the organizations running simulations.

“This gets the trainee an impression of what it would be like to enter into this environment, taking the edge off,” said Jeremy Patterson, a senior graphics researcher at ACCAD. “So the first time – hopefully they never encounter a situation like this – but if they do, they’re not taken aback by what it looks like with smoke and the injured patients.”

First Responder VR has its roots in an interactive training program called “Virtual Patient” created in another collaboration between ACCAD’s Alan Price and Dr. Douglas Danforth from the College of Medicine. Virtual Patient’s goal was to simulate patients describing their symptoms so medical school students could learn to interact with patients in the early stages of their schooling. With Virtual Patient’s success, Danforth and Dr. Nicholas Kman from the College of Medicine reached out to ACCAD to jointly create a training software for triage during disasters.

First Responder VR has already seen success with the actual trainees who have used it. The development team has been impressed by how quickly and efficiently multiple trainees could go through the system. Many initially apprehensive users begin to praise the system after they use it.

Those early successes have turned into positive news coverage across the country, along with requests for the software from within Ohio but also from as far away as Hawaii and Hong Kong. The developers have considered spinning the program off to its own full-time production company, and there have also been discussions about broadening the target audience so more people can be trained in triage techniques.

“Unfortunately, [disasters] happen a lot,” Patterson said. “[More people] being able to better deal with them is probably a good thing.”

Additional collaborators on First Responder VR include Alex Oliszewski from the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts; Scott Swearingen and Zach Winegardner from the Department of Design; and ACCAD graduate students Abby Ayers, Tori Campbell, Sana asl Benham, Void Mordant, Stacey Dunten, Jacob Athyal and Heran Zhou.

This is our sixth annual contest, and the winner receives a very cool trophy from Ohio State News and a $500 award from Ohio State’s Enterprise for Research, Innovation and Knowledge. 

We’ve done the hard part, selecting three finalists for consideration from the over 160 stories we’ve written so far this year about cool research – and let’s just be honest, all Ohio State science is inherently cool. From here, we are asking readers to vote early and often – really! – to pick the winner.

Be sure to watch the videos above of our finalist faculty talking about their work and the excitement of being a scientist. And scroll down to VOTE!

Here are the finalists:

Climate change is turning the trees into gluttons: Forests appear to be bulking up on the excess carbon they pull from the atmosphere. This study showed that elevated carbon levels consistently led to an increase of wood volume in 10 different temperate forest groups across the country, suggesting that trees are helping to shield Earth’s ecosystem from the impacts of global warming through their rapid growth.

Future wearable health tech could measure gases released from skin: Scientists have taken the first step to creating the next generation of wearable health monitors. New research suggests that a wearable sensor may be able to monitor the body’s health by detecting the gases released from a person’s skin. The method would allow the technology to sense biomarkers related to metabolic disorders, like heart disease or diabetes. 

Blocking enzyme could hold the key to preventing, treating severe COVID-19: Blocking a single immune response-related molecule holds promise in preventing or treating severe COVID-19 symptoms by reducing inflammation, tissue injury and blood clots in the lungs, research in mice suggests. Versions of this enzyme exist and have similar functions in both mice and humans, making it an attractive therapeutic target.

Voting starts today – see the poll below – and is open until 5 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13, 2023. The process is decidedly unscientific: Participants may cast one vote per day until the poll closes.

Thank you in advance for helping us name the Coolest Ohio State Science Story of 2022!

Editor's note: Voting has closed. Stay tuned for news about the winner!

The company says its $20 billion investment to build two semiconductor fabrication plants northeast of Columbus will generate more than 20,000 jobs, including 3,000 direct Intel positions earning an average of $135,000 per year; a need for 7,000 construction workers; and additional indirect and support jobs including electricians, engineers and workers in the food, health care, housing, entertainment and other industries. The megaproject is expected to add $2.8 billion to Ohio’s annual gross state product.

“It’s a massive project that involves the public and private sector,” said Kimberly Murnieks, a John Glenn College of Public Affairs graduate and director of the Ohio Office of Budget and Management and chief financial officer for the state. “It involves job creation and workforce development and higher ed, as well as the construction industry and new technology for things like a major water reclamation facility, which hasn’t been talked about a lot, but that is a high-tech, future-focused development that could be replicated in other places. Continuing collaboration is key.”

As Intel and its employees settle in central Ohio, public and private sector planning and collaboration must support education, workforce development, housing, and research and learning, according to Glenn College faculty and alumni.

Education

Intel is investing $50 million directly in Ohio higher education institutions including Ohio State to establish comprehensive and collaborative programs to accelerate readiness and enable the workforce needed for operations of its new semiconductor fabrication facilities and of ecosystem partners. The investments will provide resources for creating new curriculums for associate and undergraduate degrees, certifications, faculty training, reskill and upskill programs for the existing workforce, laboratory equipment upgrades and research supporting semiconductor fabrication innovation.

Josh Hawley, director of the Ohio Education Research Center (OERC), a unit of the Glenn College, said Intel will need high paying jobs in direct services along with low-wage positions.

“It will drive up demand for all kinds of workers, everything from your plumber to housekeeper. So there are lots of positive spillovers,” he said.

He’s concerned, however, that too many of the high wage jobs will come from people moving to Ohio.

“We should prioritize training and upskilling existing workers in Ohio, as opposed to recruiting. It’s a delicate balancing act, but we know HR executives in Intel are investing in developing programs with colleges, technical schools and workforce programs,” Hawley said. “These investments will help secure labor for the long run and ensure that opportunity is spread more equitably. 

“We need a job pipeline into high wage jobs for Intel,” Hawley added. “There are lots of ways that apprenticeships or other programs can be used to help this happen.”

Workforce Development

Lisa Patt-McDaniel, CEO of the Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio, said much of the talent needed by Intel already exists in local employees with transferable skills.

“Intel is essentially advanced manufacturing; that’s not a skillset we don’t have,” said Patt-McDaniel, who holds a master’s degree in public policy and management from the Glenn College. She is working with partner counties who are covered by three other workforce areas to form a collaborative to help Intel source current talent and support future talent through training or associate degrees. 

Another example: construction workers who don’t need advanced training and could start work immediately.

“It’s very possible you could get a job there now and will be working on that site for 20 years because they’ll be adding additional fabrication facilities,” she said, pointing out that Intel has indicated it could expand beyond its planned two new fabrication plants to eight. “It’s a project that will keep on giving in the way of jobs.”

However, she said, challenges are that Intel isn’t the only local company with job openings, and employees of existing companies may leave their positions to go to Intel, creating more vacancies. In addition, Intel suppliers and other businesses that will arrive to support new workers and residents also will need workers.

“For us, it’s helping them to source talent and train a pipeline,” Patt-McDaniel said.

“At the post-secondary level, it’s making sure every entrant into either our two-year or four-year colleges is aware of all the opportunities in Ohio and how their long-term career goals fit into what’s here,” she said, to aid talent retention in the state.

Ohio State is already partnering with other Midwest colleges and universities to support the onshoring of the advanced semiconductor and microelectronics industry and address the industries’ research and workforce needs.

Patt-McDaniel said building an employee pipeline also requires continuing workforce development efforts even as early as grade school, providing career exploration programs so that by the time students get to high school, they choose opportunities in central Ohio.

Housing

The local housing market already shows effects that the potential influx of new Intel employees brings for supply and demand and pricing.

“One of the awesome things about Intel is it’s going to raise property values; one of the scary things about Intel is it’s going to raise property values,” said Stephanie Moulton, a Glenn College professor whose expertise includes housing and consumer finance.

“For people who already own homes, this is a good thing. But for people who haven’t yet purchased homes, already the Columbus housing market is one of strongest in the country in terms of our house price growth,” she said. “Prices have just boomed since COVID, and the population is growing, which means demand for housing and homes is increasing and supply can’t keep up with that demand, so you end up having really high prices.

“I think about the missing middle and first-time homeowners,” Moulton says. “How do we make sure there are on-ramps for new homeowners into the market? That’s going to be challenging without investment. There are things Intel could do to create on-ramps.”

Some solutions: subsidies; strategic housing development with various home price points; and help from nonprofits such as NeighborWorks, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, Ohio Housing Financing Agency and the Affordable Housing Alliance of Central Ohio, which have expertise on how to serve people across the income spectrum.

“It’s making sure those players are at the table and part of the discussion so they can help,” Moulton said.

Research and Learning

Intel’s arrival could provide opportunities for faculty research and student experiential learning.

While much of the focus has been on the need for employees in engineering or construction, Intel’s arrival might amplify the need for Glenn College graduates in areas including city planners, finance and budgeting, policymaking and government relations.

In fact, Patt-McDaniel said, opportunities for internships could increase as local governments need additional staffing and fresh perspectives.

“We need people going into public service who have the ability to take a wide-angle view even if they’re working on one part of it,” she said. “I honestly think that when you’re in the policy and government seat, you have the ability to do so much good to set the conditions for everything else to work.”

Moulton, who also serves as the Glenn College faculty director for research, noted that Intel has demonstrated its commitment to research, and Ohio State and Intel are already collaborating on efforts such as workforce development. Many Glenn College faculty have expertise and engagement in research in the areas that will be most impacted by the company, including education, collaborative governance, support programs such as food systems, nonprofit organizations, and energy and environment policy.

“Intel could invest in ivory tower research,” Moulton said, “and our researchers can roll that back into the communities that are going to be affected by Intel.”

Read about Glenn College faculty, alumni and students who helped prepare Ohio to attract Intel to the region.

Biden delivered remarks Friday afternoon in Licking County on rebuilding American manufacturing through the CHIPS and Science Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. He led a ceremony that brought together federal, state and local leaders as well as leaders in higher education and industry to celebrate Intel’s more than $20 billion planned investment in a new semiconductor manufacturing site to produce leading-edge chips.

“It’s fitting to break ground for America’s future here in Ohio,” Biden said. “Think about it. There’s kind of a tradition here: The Wright brothers, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn. They defined America’s spirit, a spirit of daring and innovation. Pat [Gelsinger] just laid out Intel’s vision that builds on that legacy.”

In Ohio, the semiconductor factories are expected to generate 7,000 construction jobs and 3,000 long-term positions in manufacturing and engineering. Intel has also made an initial pledge to invest $50 million in Ohio’s higher education institutions. It’s an investment Johnson said Ohio State is prepared to embrace.

“I have the privilege today of representing the region’s higher education sector, which stands ready to educate the workforce that Intel and its suppliers and customers will need,” Johnson said. “At the same time, we support new advances in semiconductor technology through our research. Providing intellectual capital and groundbreaking research for this effort is bigger than any one university alone.”

DeWine said the Intel project would offer an opportunity to the youth of Ohio to stay in the Buckeye state and prosper in a new, innovative economy.

“Ohioans are the heart of the new Silicon Heartland. Right now in Ohio, there are young men, young women attending our 14 public universities, and others in our 74 private liberal arts colleges and universities studying mechanical and industrial engineering and other things, all of whom may one day work here at Intel or in some other great Ohio high tech job,” he said.

The new jobs and opportunities also came with a commitment to equity and diversity.

“Technology plays a critical role in building a digital future, a future that is equitable, prosperous, accessible, and inclusive for all,” Gelsinger said. “And this is why we are so excited about the things that we are going to do together here in Ohio.”

In advance of the ceremony, Intel announced grants totaling $17.7 million that will fund eight projects at more than 80 Ohio colleges and universities. Included in this announcement was nearly $1.5 million for Ohio State and partner institutions across the state working toward the common goal of a more diverse semiconductor industry.

The Ohio Partnership for a Diverse and Inclusive Semiconductor Ecosystem and Workforce, a network of public and private universities, historically Black colleges and universities, community colleges and career-technical centers, proposes to develop an iterative, student-centered, curricular approach that supports the development of a diverse and inclusive semiconductor educational field and skilled workforce throughout Ohio.

Intel also announced $3 million in funding for the Center for Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication Research and Education, which will also be led by Ohio State.

The Ohio Partnership for a Diverse and Inclusive Semiconductor Ecosystem and Workforce, a network of public and private universities, historically Black colleges and universities, community colleges and career-technical centers, proposes to develop an iterative, student-centered, curricular approach that supports the development of a diverse and inclusive semiconductor educational field and skilled workforce throughout Ohio.

“Intel is steadfast in its commitment to a diverse workforce, and we are prepared to help them realize that vision in Ohio,” said Ayanna Howard, dean of the College of Engineering. “Along with partners throughout the state, including HBCUs, community colleges and career tech centers, we will build a holistic, inclusive semiconductor educational ecosystem that welcomes students from all backgrounds.”

Led by Ohio State, this partnership offers the needed capacity to increase the representational diversity within the semiconductor industry, while simultaneously creating and piloting innovative strategies to engage in and expand upon the necessary training, development and education of the future semiconductor workforce. Among the participating institutions are:

• Apollo Career and Technology Centers
• Case Western Reserve University
• Central Ohio Technical College
• Central State University
• College of Wooster
• Columbus State Community College
• C-TEC of Licking County
• Denison University
• Kenyon College
• Marion Technical College
• North Central State College
• Oberlin College
• Ohio Wesleyan University
• Rhodes State College
• Tri-Rivers Pioneer
• University of Dayton
• Wilberforce University

Within the three years of funding, the partnership seeks to:

• Establish a framework for the next phase of the semiconductor educational ecosystem.
• Develop a new host of curricular offerings in response to assessed gaps in current options. These will include at least 20 modules, 20 new or revised courses, five certificate programs and enhanced associate’s and bachelor’s degrees.
• Increase awareness of the semiconductor industry through credit-bearing and non-credit bearing introductory courses and at least four rapid learning events. 
• Partner with the University of Cincinnati and Kent State University to enable augmented and virtual reality access to semiconductor instrumentation and cleanrooms.
• Award 200 certificates, 425 bachelor’s degrees and 200 advanced degrees in which students have semiconductor knowledge and competencies.
• Increase the number, percentage and diversity of students prepared and excited to enter the semiconductor workforce in central Ohio.

This announcement comes six months after Intel’s initial pledge to invest $50 million in Ohio’s higher education institutions. Intel also announced $3 million in funding for the Center for Advanced Semiconductor Fabrication Research and Education, which will also be led by Ohio State.

The virtual event was the first in “The Impacts of Intel” discussion series hosted this summer by Ohio State’s Center for Urban and Regional Analysis (CURA).

“This is a big deal for Ohio,” Harvey Miller, the center’s director, said of the Intel development. “We’re going to talk to local experts, both at Ohio State and in the community, and talk about what they think is coming and how we should prepare.”

Panelists included Erin Prosser, city of Columbus assistant director of Housing Strategies; Robert Vogt, real estate market analyst, Vogt Strategic Insights; and Jennifer Noll, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s (MORPC) associate director of Community Development.

Noll said statistics compiled by MORPC indicate that central Ohio’s current population of 2.4 million residents is on track to grow to 3 million residents by 2050, which the Intel development is likely to expedite.

Intel’s expansion into Ohio “proves to us that we can’t take our foot off the accelerator when it comes to preparing for growth,” Noll said. “I think that’s especially true when it comes to housing.”  

Over the past decade, central Ohio has experienced a housing shortage stemming from construction not keeping pace with the region’s growth, panelists said.

One solution is to modernize zoning regulations in Columbus and surrounding communities, Noll said. MORPC’s Central Ohio Regional Housing Strategy, which the organization updated in 2021, encourages municipalities to adopt a “green tape development strategy.”

“The idea here is that it can take some time to get a housing proposal through the development review process before (developers) need to break ground, let alone the time it takes to actually build,” she said. “There might be things that communities can do to make that process more efficient, and any sort of time that we can save in the process, you can potentially save (developers) some money on the back end, as well.”

In comparison to the Silicon Valley technology hub in San Francisco’s Bay Area, which also faces housing shortages, central Ohio’s geography is better situated to accommodate a population boom, Vogt said.

“One of the limitations that Silicon Valley has is, essentially, it’s a ‘silicon valley’ – it’s very limited geographically. The one thing we have here in Ohio is a lot of land, and we have the ability to spread ourselves out a bit,” he said. “I think the challenge may be, how do we get that land zoned for the correct housing, how do we get the infrastructure in place to serve it, how do we make utilities available?”

Central Ohio’s natural resources are also benefits that the region offers, Vogt said.

“One of the other advantages that we have is a good water supply to be able to serve many of these new housing units,” he said. “There’s a lot of factors to our favor that I think will not affect us as broadly as it has in some of these other high-end markets.”

Providing adequate housing as Ohio’s population and labor force continue to grow will require municipalities to work with developers to provide a range of options for residents at different income levels, Prosser said.

“We do have affordable housing as you get further out from the center-city,” she said. “But then you are trading that impact directly to the family, where you have a transportation cost burden replacing that housing cost burden, but then you also have the burden to the infrastructure of the roadway system.”

Communities must also incentivize the construction of additional housing units beyond the traditional single-family home, Prosser said.

 “I think where Columbus policies have shifted in the last few years is thinking about building up instead of building out,” she said. “How do we facilitate that increased density within our borders so that we can support more families closer to where the job opportunities are?”

Upcoming events in “The Impacts of Intel” series include:

July 15 – A Development Panel Discussion

July 29 – A Transportation Panel Discussion

Aug. 5 – An Energy and Water Panel Discussion

For registration and more information, click here.

Most research on measuring human biomarkers, which are measures of a body’s health, rely on electrical signals to sense the chemicals excreted in sweat. But sensors that rely on perspiration often require huge amounts of it just to get a reading. 

A new study suggests that a wearable sensor may be able to monitor the body’s health by detecting the gases released from a person’s skin. 

“It is completely non-invasive, and completely passive on the behalf of the user,” said Anthony Annerino, lead author of the study and a graduate student in materials science and engineering at The Ohio State University.  

Some wearable devices, like smartwatches or fitness trackers, are already capable of measuring pulse rates or temperatures, but this team’s method would allow the technology to sense biomarkers related to metabolic disorders, like heart disease or diabetes.  

Their research is published in the journal PLOS One.  

“Discerning health issues through the skin is really the ultimate frontier,” said study co-author Pelagia-Irene Gouma, professor of materials science and engineering. Gouma also leads the Smart Connected Health project, which aims to support research in health and medicine.  

“The project still has a couple of years to go,” said Gouma. “But in six months, we should have proof of concept and in a year, we’d like to have it tested in people.”

The final product of the team’s research would be a small device a person could wear on low-sweat body locations, like behind the ear or on the nails, she said. And as more people become familiar with using wearable devices in their everyday lives, Gouma expects technology and medicine to become even more intertwined.  

“We are developing a new generation of skin sensors, and it will really be the new norm,” Gouma said.  

Scientists, including Gouma, have a long history of measuring  the concentration of organic compounds in our breath – a type of gas – as indicators of health. One example would be blowing into a breathalyzer, a device which can measure the amount of alcohol in a person’s blood or be used to detect viruses. 

But such a gadget requires “active intent” and only provides a “momentary snapshot” of the body, Annerino noted. Compared to the amount of chemicals we release when we breathe, he said, this team’s sensors can operate on much smaller amounts of gaseous acetone released from the skin. 

Acetone is one of the substances secreted from the skin that can tell researchers a lot about the inner workings of the human body. Concentrations of acetone in the breath have also been shown to be related to blood sugar levels and fat-burning rates. 

“This is an area of research that hasn’t been nearly as well developed yet, because we’re just now producing the technology to measure lower concentrations of these gases with high selectivity,” Annerino said. 

To test whether their sensors could detect varying amounts of these enlightening chemicals (which would signal the presence of the gaseous molecules), the researchers created a film material made out of derivatives of plant cellulose and electroactive polymers. This film can bend dramatically in response to how much of the acetone is detected in its environment.  

Annerino’s team then placed the film over solutions containing ethanol (alcohol), acetone and water to gauge its sensitivity, selectivity and repeatability.  

“We found significant bias toward bending more upon exposure to certain chemicals over others,” said Annerino. This bending happens in milliseconds, and the researchers  used machine learning and complex computational algorithms to accurately record and track the film’s bending response to the different chemical solutions.  

Their findings showed that the films are sensitive enough to track long-term changes in the body. While focusing on a metabolic rate sensor, another possible use would be to track ethanol which, in the body, can spell signs of liver disease. More work needs to be done on how the films used in this study would work as actual sensors worn on the body, the researchers said. 

The opportunity to make someone’s life easier was one of the reasons Annerino said he was so eager to get involved with the study. “Not every research study has an obvious impact on society and people’s lives, but that’s something that this project in particular really has,” he said. 

Other co-authors were Manoj Srinivasan, an associate professor of materials science and engineering, and Michael Faltas, a recent graduate of the mechanical and aerospace engineering  program. This work was funded by the National Science Foundation.  

In the presentation, “Pace in the Internet Age,” Stephen Kern, Humanities Distinguished Professor in the Department of History, outlined the pros and cons of having 24-hour access to a seemingly limitless supply of information at one’s fingertips.

One upside is that technological advancements enable people of all socioeconomic backgrounds to prepare for life-altering circumstances such as weather emergencies, Kern said.

“The ability to predict the future increases by one day in terms of predicting a hurricane every decade using computer models,” Kern said. “In 1920, they looked at almanacs, which was just superstition. You knew when it was raining when your head was wet. They didn’t have this knowledge. We have this knowledge (now), and anyone has this knowledge. You know what’s going to happen – a hurricane’s coming in three days.”

Kern noted that certain human inventions have created a paradox: Technological advancements have resulted in more accurate weather forecasting, but the carbon footprint necessary to manufacture and power some forms of technology can have a harmful effect on the environment.

“Technology creates all kind of environmental problems,” he said, “and they’re also making it possible to manage them.”

Another benefit of advanced technology is the ability to diagnose and treat medical conditions earlier and more effectively, especially rare diseases such as Tay-Sachs and Huntington’s, Kern said.

“We didn’t know a lot about them (in past decades). There are certain tests now that we have with these diseases,” he said. “Rich and poor have access to that. It’s a good thing.”

In a question-and-answer session following Kern’s presentation, one participant pointed out that throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in people working remotely resulted in greater reliance on technology to do business and gather information. Research materials that were previously obtainable only by visiting a library’s brick-and-mortar location were digitized and made available online — increasing access, especially for individuals with disabilities.  

“Technology has opened things up,” Kern said.

The pandemic also emphasized the importance of technology in staying connected to colleagues, friends and family who live far away, Kern said.

Before the internet, “you said goodbye to your son or daughter. They got on a ship to go somewhere, go to Australia or somewhere far away from the United States, you may never hear from them,” he said. “It would be intolerable for us to do without all these things – have a child go away and you can’t talk to them, you don’t hear from them for the next year, let alone get a message to them, let alone know that they got it.”

The discussion also touched on the digital divide among generations. One participant said she’s noticed that many young people are accustomed to being constantly plugged in with smartphones, tablets and laptops, while some older adults prefer to disconnect from technology and interact face to face.  

Kern noted that adults of all ages express reluctance to return to a simpler way of life and give up modern conveniences.

“No one wants a slow computer. No one wants a dial-up computer. We want (internet access) now,” Kern said. “It’s transformative, but who wants to not have it?”

Participants also discussed how round-the-clock connectivity can lead to information overload and a growing intolerance to handling downtime without a device in hand.

“There are all kinds of wheels and quadrants going at the same time and many things happening at once,” Kern said. “Is that good or bad or is it going to get worse? I don’t know. It’s hard to keep up.”

The “Pace in the Internet Age” presentation is part of the Center for Historical Research’s 2021-2023 lecture series, “Crisis, Uncertainty, and History: Trajectories and Experiences of Accelerated Change.” More information about upcoming events in the series.

Since its creation in 2016, ALX has saved students more than $25 million through faculty innovation, the adoption of open-source education materials and discounts on textbooks. Many of the grant recipients this year are developing new course materials themselves, either through aggregating online content or drafting their own texts.

President Kristina M. Johnson has expanded the university’s focus on affordability by establishing the Scarlet & Gray Advantage program, which will provide undergraduate students the opportunity to earn their bachelor’s degree, debt-free. This broadens work in the same vein by her predecessor, Michael V. Drake.

“President Drake had a keen interest in affordability and excellence, and now we are excited to see President Johnson double down on this commitment with the Scarlet & Gray Advantage program. ALX connects that institutional awareness of affordability and access directly to what’s happening in classrooms to help faculty find alternatives to costly course materials,” said Ashley Miller, associate director of affordability and access in the Office of Technology and Digital Innovation.

While cost savings are the primary focus of ALX, Miller notes that there are additional benefits to faculty.

“We also see a pedagogical transformation. The level of engagement from faculty increases when they’ve curated their own textbook. They get to align it with exactly how they teach the course. Having that control over the course materials causes a chain reaction: the instructor is more engaged, the students then become more engaged, and we have seen metrics that indicate that this engagement leads to better outcomes” she said.

Two of this year’s grant recipients agree. Ashleigh Hardin, associate director of first-year writing, will be using her funds to replace the English 1110 textbook with a Carmen Course that includes open-source materials. She hopes it will empower students to consider their course work more thoughtfully.

“By using materials that are more accessible, you are giving students an introduction to networks of information so even if students are not using open education resources in another class, there are still other things they can do,” Hardin said.

At the Lima campus, Margaret Young, associate professor of music, is using two different grants to develop her courses: One will allow for the curation of openly licensed materials for a music and wellness class and the other, which has a special racial justice focus, will go to Young’s Informed Beginning Pianist class. Young will work with a subject librarian to source materials from various musical traditions and diverse composers.  

“I didn’t want there to be any additional barriers for students on a regional campus to participate in this enriched scholarship,” Young said of her work to lower course costs. Like Hardin, Young also sees benefits beyond financial savings.

“I think by finding ways to make courses more focused and by showing direct application to their goals, students will have a greater level of engagement,” she said.

Young is using the grant funds for her classes in the fall of this year, but she is already discovering new resources, including an interactive map of female composers throughout time and around the world. This type of innovation is exciting to Young.

“I want to make sure that my students understand that learning doesn’t end with their degree. I’m not done developing or growing,” she said. “I love learning; it’s fun.”

The savings passed on to students, the flexible creativity afforded to instructors and the support of open-source materials have made the grant program a success. 

In addition, there is a larger, final benefit to the ALX faculty grants. A 2021 grant recipient, Susan Williams, professor and chair of the Department of English, believes the university’s support of these efforts serves as a model for other institutions: “It is part of our responsibility as a land-grant university to be the people that are seeding some of this – to make materials accessible not just for our students but for students at other places.”

Digital Flagship Swift coding and app development courses offer the knowledge needed to build practical apps and code effectively. So far more than 3,000 members of the university community have started the free certificate program. Each course covers a wide variety of skills, offering a well-rounded approach to code and design apps.

The self-paced, online curriculum is divided into four competency-based courses culminating in a non-credit, continuing education certificate from Ohio State in the basics of Swift coding and app development processes. Users can complete Apple’s Swift certification as a complement to the Ohio State credential.

For some Ohio State students, the courses help them ramp up as they prepare for classes in computer engineering. Alec Owen, a second-year industrial and systems engineering major, started the courses before diving into his degree program.

“I’d say the course was probably my first intro [to coding] and it did help me. It prepared me a little bit for my fundamentals of engineering classes where you do a lot of programming,” he said. “So that was helpful.”

The certificate is designed to make it easy for people from all backgrounds to get started coding and developing apps. No experience is required.

The courses allow users to move through lessons on their own schedule, speeding through what comes easily or spending more time in areas they want to develop. For Bobby Moosally, a second-year computer science and engineering major, the ease of programing in Swift was a major appeal.

“I guess the syntax of Swift … was really simple. It was very user-friendly and I was able to find the things I needed to find very quickly when I was doing assignments,” he said.

The courses build on each other, with the first course providing a strong foundation for the more advanced work to come. Small assignments and check-ins throughout the first course help ensure students master the foundational concepts before proceeding to the next level.

Kelsey Woods, a research assistant in the School of Communication, said she started taking the courses to prepare for her next step in the job market. When the COVID-19 pandemic started, Woods made Swift coding into a hobby like some turned to gardening or cooking.

“I was trying to broaden my skill range to become a more attractive candidate. And then once the pandemic hit, I put that job search on hold for a little bit,” she said. “But it actually became kind of nice and something to do that felt like I was progressing. I was learning a new, useful skill and it was kind of like my quarantine hobby.

“I don’t necessarily see myself as an actual coder, but I think it’s really important to understand that code and have a really basic knowledge of it,” Woods said. “Especially if you’re interacting with coders to make sure you’re speaking the same language.”

Adding skills that will help students stand out in a competitive job market was a common goal for students taking the courses.

“I think a lot of the core skills will be valuable. Even if it’s something I don’t use in my career, it would be something fun to have if I ever want to do a little project on my own,” Owen said. “It would be fun to be able to make an app just for something that you want to do.”

The Ohio State University is helping to link researchers within the university who are interested in pivoting their efforts to COVID-19. Keepresearching.osu.edu, a new website developed by the Office of Research, in partnership with the Office of the Chief Information Officer, provides tools, resources and common space for researchers to learn about coronavirus-related projects.

“Ohio State’s world-class researchers are well-positioned to take a leadership role in tackling emerging issues associated with COVID-19,” said Morley O. Stone, senior vice president for research. “This new website will increase awareness of these efforts and facilitate cross collaboration across our university.”

Keepresearching.osu.edu follows the successful launches of the keeplearning.osu.edu and keepteaching.osu.edu platforms – and offers members of the PI (principal investigator) community a way to connect virtually on coronavirus research.

The website is part of a three-pronged effort by the Office of Research to spur COVID-19 research. The COVID-19 seed funding program supports researchers efforts to develop solutions. So far, six projects have received funding (See related story). In addition, the office launched a new survey tool to help capture information on existing COVID-19 research projects along with offers from members of the Ohio State community who want to share research expertise or campus resources to support COVID-19 projects. Information from the survey is used to populate the Research Hub on the KeepResearching website.

The website will remain active even after researchers return to their labs and studios full time. Stone says the information and connections will continue to be important because the projects and collaborations won’t suddenly end when virus containment measures are lifted.

The site also includes information on a new multi-university effort that documents technology licensing principles designed to allow equitable access to university innovations during this public health crisis. Ohio State signed on to this framework last week.

“Ohio State researchers are focused on solving problems during this unprecedented pandemic,” says Scott Osborne, vice president of economic and corporate engagement. “Our technology transfer team is committed to supporting, prioritizing and accelerating their work on COVID-19 solutions so that potential impacts can be realized in our communities as quickly as possible.”

Keepresearching.osu.edu is updated regularly and also includes information on both internal and external funding for COVID-19 research. In addition, it offers a section on COVID-19 research news coming out of Ohio State’s colleges and units.

U.S. News & World Report ranked the university’s online bachelor’s programs No. 1 for 2020 — up two spots over the previous year.

Additionally, Ohio State’s online Master of Science in Nursing program is ranked No. 4 nationally and No. 2 among public universities, with three of the program’s specialties also placing among the top four.

“We are pleased to be among the nation’s top online programs,” Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce A. McPheron said. “Our faculty and staff are committed to the success of all Ohio State students — whether they are on campus or online. This recognition reflects the university’s focus on advancing teaching and learning for all students.”

Ohio State’s online bachelor’s programs and online master’s program in nursing have been ranked among the nation’s top 10 for six consecutive years. The ranking for online bachelor’s programs includes Ohio State’s RN to Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences and Bachelor of Science, Dental Hygiene.

Online graduate programs in the College of Engineering and the College of Education and Human Ecology rose in the rankings in 2020. Engineering programs ranked No. 19, and education programs ranked No. 20 — up six and 18 spots, respectively.

Ohio State’s online graduate engineering programs include the Master of Science in Welding Engineering and Master of Global Engineering Leadership. Graduate education offerings include the Master of Learning Technologies, Master of Arts in Art Education, and Master of Science in Agricultural Communication, Education and Leadership.

"Our online programs provide students the opportunity to experience Ohio State’s academic excellence from anywhere — a modern expression of our land-grant mission,” Vice President and Chief Information Officer Mike Hofherr said.

Ohio State Online degree and certificate programs are taught by the same faculty who teach on campus. Each faculty member works with an instructional designer to reshape the instructor’s on-campus teaching for a technology-rich modality, Hofherr explained.

U.S. News & World Report ranks online programs at regionally accredited institutions with a focus on quality instruction and affordability. Rankings indicators include engagement, services and technologies, faculty credentials and training, and expert opinion.

“We are grateful that U.S. News & World Report continues to spotlight our world-class faculty, staff and curricula as among the very best in the country at preparing students to transform the future of health and improve lives,” said Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, dean of the College of Nursing and the university’s chief wellness officer. “Our wonderful online students receive the same innovative and high-quality education as students on campus so that they can dream, discover and deliver a healthier world through evidence-based care.”

The most recently ranked programs join several others across the university recognized for academic excellence, including 15 Ohio State graduate programs ranked in the top 10 by U.S. News & World Report. The publication’s “America’s Best Colleges” report ranked Ohio State in the top 20 among public universities nationwide. The university was also recognized in the Best Undergraduate Teaching and Most Innovative Schools categories.

The models show that adding lithium-ion batteries to a regional airplane could reduce that airplane’s fuel needs by up to 20 percent, the researchers said.

The team presented the findings last week at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Electric Aircraft Technologies Symposium in Indianapolis.

“We are working on ways to make air travel less carbon-intensive,” said Marcello Canova, a co-presenter and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Ohio State. “Lithium-ion batteries, including the technology that is commercially available today, appear to be a promising option.”

The research is conducted under NASA’s University Leadership Initiative program, and focuses on evaluating the trade-offs between fuel savings and a battery pack’s size, weight and costs, while also including the carbon impact of the electricity necessary to recharge the battery pack. The models and tools developed were a joint effort between researchers at Ohio State and Georgia Institute of Technology, and could help airplane and airplane battery designers better understand how an aircraft’s design affects its ability to be powered by a battery.

In preliminary designs, the researchers focused on lithium-ion battery packs that could supplement the power produced by the engines of a regional jet – one traveling 600 or fewer miles, carrying 50 to 100 passengers.

Their model showed in tests that a battery has the ability to power about 30 percent of the total power required for an airplane to climb to cruising altitude, and about 20 percent of the power required to cruise.

That could reduce levels of carbon dioxide – a primary driver of climate change – that airplanes contribute to the atmosphere. Air travel contributes about 2 percent of the carbon dioxide humans put into Earth’s atmosphere, according to the Air Transit Action Group. This research team, led by Ohio State and four other universities, has been funded by NASA to find new, less carbon-intensive ways to power air travel.

“Our team is focusing on evaluating the feasibility and economics of introducing lithium-ion batteries to air travel,” Canova said. “And we’re working on the ways to make that safe and reliable.”

Their work also considers how to make batteries for air travel more efficient. Batteries that power automobiles differ from those that help power airplanes, Canova said: Airplane batteries must abide by more-strict weight, safety, durability and reliability standards.

But batteries deteriorate with use, offering less power over time and decreasing the range an airplane can travel. That deterioration also means less power is available to help an airplane accelerate and reach its maximum speed. Temperature affects batteries, as well.

To lay the groundwork for a better battery, Canova said, the team built a computer model of an electro-thermal battery pack and added an algorithm that simulated the effects of time and use on batteries. Then they tested to see how that model performed after repeated use and under various temperatures.

The team planned for the battery to be used for six flights per day, and calculated the power necessary for takeoff, climbing, cruising, landing and taxiing to the runway. They allotted one hour between flights to charge the battery pack, and assumed that the pack could be used for two years, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

They found that a battery pack’s performance is limited by capacity fade, a term used to describe energy loss in a battery over time. And they found that time, not use, is the main driver of battery deterioration.

What they developed, Canova said, is essentially a tool that can be used to predict the effect stressors such as aging and use might have on a lithium-ion battery powering a regional aircraft, which is a very important factor when evaluating costs and benefits of introducing this technology in air travel.

When students return to school in the Columbus City and South-Western City school districts later this month, new Apple technology will be waiting for them along with teachers who have been trained to teach them how to write computer code.

As part of Apple’s Community Education Initiative, it collaborated with Ohio State’s Digital Flagship and the College of Education and Human Ecology for a week-long Teacher Coding Academy.

The learning initiative brought teachers from the Columbus City Schools, South-Western City Schools and Ohio State University Extension to campus to learn coding by developing an app that solves one of three community challenges: documenting firefighter exposure to chemicals that can cause cancer; matching people to services delivered by nonprofits through the Reeb Avenue Center, and helping residents know more about the Linden Farmers Market, which offers fresh food in a “food desert.”

Educators presented their apps at an app showcase to wrap up the coding academy. Community members and educators listened to the presentations.

Three educators from South-Western City Schools developed an app to help document firefighter exposure to chemicals. Teacher Josh Doran says the coding academy taught him a lot about the potential of Apple products in the classroom.

“What I have learned about what Apple products can do for our students and help them out in the future – it’s amazing, just ... having our kids being able to code on the iPad and having a direct program for them to follow,” Doran said.

Math teacher Mark Colvin is excited about what students can learn during app development.

“I like the app development side of this,” he said. “The community involvement, I think, will be huge in the schools. We’ll be able to get community members in and let our students think more outside of themselves and outside of the school, trying to solve bigger problems than what they face in school.”

Marissa Mulligan and Sue Hogan, OSU Extension educators and 4-H youth development experts for Franklin County, designed an app to help Linden area residents learn about the Linden Farmers Market. The colorful app offered information such as whether vendors take cash or credit, what foods vendors offer, and tips on food storage and recipes.