Effectiveness of an autonomous vehicle using solar energy for a custom battery

The process of designing and testing a custom lithium battery pack with supplemental solar charging is examined. The design process includes: meeting power consumption requirements, determining the appropriate assembly and wiring method, incorporating a Battery Management System (BMS), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis, experimental testing, determining the appropriate Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS)...

Consortium for High-volume Additive Manufacturing of Aerospace Heat Exchanger and Talent Development

The Autonomy Research Center for STEAHM1 (ARCS), a NASA-sponsored center for convergence research at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), in partnership with Castheon Inc, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), ASTM International Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence (AM CoE), UCLA, LA Piece College and Honeywell propose a transformative convergence research approach that will fundament...

The Sustainable Manufacturing Alliances for Research and Training Industry Assessment Center (The SMART IAC)

The Sustainable Manufacturing Alliance for Research and Training Industrial Assessment Center (SMART IAC), hosted by the University of California Irvine and California State University Northridge (satellite) is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Industrial Assessment Centers Program. We provide no-cost energy consulting services to manufacturers within 150 miles of UC Irvine and CSUN...

RUI: Randomness, computability, and complexity in groups

Groups are a class of fundamental objects in algebra, and more generally, mathematics. They originated as a way to describe symmetries in both mathematics and nature. It turns out that almost all algebraic mathematical structures can be considered as a group with some extra structure. More recently, group theory has also found uses in cryptography. Many tools from other fields, like combinatorics and geometry, have proven useful in the stud...

Impact of Culture on Faultline Formation and Persistence

With collaborators we have examined team interactions with diverse members and how faultlines and subgroups are developed and persist. We then examine the impact of such faultlines on team processes and outcomes such as identity, communication, conflict and performance.

Tuning Interfacial Excitonic Binding in Twisted Two-Dimensional MoS2 Bilayers

Two-dimensional (2D) layered molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has attracted much attention due to its outstanding intrinsic properties and diverse applications. Defects and heterostructures usually play an important role in tailoring the various properties of MoS2 based 2D materials. And strong excitonic effect due to the quantum confinement in 2D MoS2 may be responsible for large variation of electric and optical properties...

RUI: Partially Observed Curves, and Big-Data Virtual Bootstrap

The PI will consider problems related to statistical prediction and inference in two challenging setups: (i) There may be censored, partially observed, or missing data, and (ii) the training data size may be very large (the big-data challenge). The focus will be on problems related to statistical classification, regression curve estimation, and density estimation.

Development of a CSUN GeoAnalytical Center for Research, Teaching, and Outreach in Earth Systems Science

This project will create a “GeoAnalytical Center” within the Department of Geological Sciences (DGS) at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) with the goal of expanding STEM research and educational opportunities in laboratory and computational settings. The GeoAnalytical Center will consolidate existing CSUN DGS research facilities with the requested instrumentation to create an exce...

Improving read length, accuracy, and availability of single-molecule DNA sequencing

The ability to completely sequence a single molecule of DNA by reading it directly is one of the greatest challenges of biotechnology. It also unlocks the ability to directly read RNA sequences. Two techniques in particular are showing great progress towards this goal. The first one (MinIon, Oxford Nanopore Technologies) is essentially reading the size of short sequential segments of DNA using a protein nanopore....

Methods to Wirelessly Power Fully Implantable Intravascular Blood Pumps

Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices, like implantable blood pumps, have served as an effective therapy option for patients with end-stage heart failure for over the last two decades. Within the last decade, MCS therapy has shifted from a bridge-to-transplant option to a destination therapy alternative. A large part of this success is attributed to the advancements in blood pump technology. Particularly, the developme...

There’s No Place Like HBO? The Political Economics of Race and Sexuality on American Television

This manuscript looks to HBO, in its position as a premium cable industry leader, and the series that it produces, as well as the means of production, the audiences it pursues, the strategies that it employs, the successes and failures of those strategies and the production staff’s influential ability to affect the content of the commodities that it sells to its target audience(s). To accomplish th...

Mutualism faces the heat

Joshua trees, which are cultural icons and ecological keystones of the Mojave Desert, are exclusively pollinated by highly specialized moths. The moths lay eggs in Joshua tree flowers, then deliberately apply pollen to fertilize the flowers so that, when the flowers develop into fruit, the moths' larvae can eat some of the seeds inside. This unique and mutually beneficial relationship is under threat by changes in land use and climate across the Mojave, and the Yoder Lab...