Interdisciplinary Research and Education: Statistics/Chemical Engineering

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An interdisciplinary research and education project between the Statistics Department at the CWRU College of Arts and Sciences, and the Chemical Engineering Department at the CWRU Case School of Engineering is being proposed. Its principal component is Professor Woyczynski's residence in the Chemical Engineering Department during his 1998/99 sabbatical, with Professor J. Adin Mann playing the role of a host. This residence will be a part of, and will help to jump start a broader collaborative effort in research and education being developed by Professor Woyczynski on the Statistics side, and Professors Jay Mann, John Angus and Phil Morrison on the Chemical Engineering side. Professor Woyczynski's expected duties will include three components: (a) A joint research program to help in the development of a virtual integrated prototyping and synchroneous manufacturing/control of vapor/plasma deposition processes for thin and thick films of wide band gap semiconductors, such as gallium nitride and diamond. The proposed control design will be model-based, and the main effort will be directed at a detailed study of the required interfacial growth models. (b) Design of undegraduate statistics courses to fit chemical engineering needs, including creation of interactive, Mathematica-based, chemical engineering-oriented computer packages, to complement the about-to-be-published text "Introductory Statistics and Random Phenomena: Uncertainty, Complexity, and Chaotic Behavior in Engineering and Science" (joint with M. Denker, Birkhauser, 1998, 505 pp.). (c) Creation of a framework for joint recruitment, supervision, and job placement of statistics and chemical engineering graduate and, more generally, materials science, students; initiation of the writing process of a graduate text on random media for that population. The PI's expectation is that his residence at the Chemical Engineering Department will produce lasting impact on the research and educational en vironment at CWRU and beyond, including: -Development of new statistical and mathematical tools needed in the virtual integrated prototyping of thin films. Without such tools the optimization of such processes does not seem to be feasible; -Direct application of these tools to the practical issues related to the design of plasma reactors for vapor deposition of such films, including development of industrial-strength software for that purpose. The latter will be done jointly with industrial software vendors, such as ControlSoft Inc., of Cleveland, Ohio, and CFD Research Corp. of Huntsville, AL, that collaborate with the Chemical Engineering department. -Development and fine tuning of statistics courses well adapted to the needs of undergraduate students majoring in materials sciences and engineering. The hope is that this will increase the attractiveness and relevance (as measured by enrollment) of such courses. The publication of the Uncertainty book should have an impact on the way statistics is taught to engineering and science students nationwide. -Creation of an interdisciplinary environment for graduate students would attract new types of students to the program, but more importantly, would improve the marketability of new Ph.D.'s and their flexibility in the job market. The PI plans to apply the acquired expertise to broaden experience and career options of the students by: - Developing and fine-tuning statistics courses to fit the needs of chemical engineering and other materials sciences undergraduate students. - Developing chemical engineering oriented packages and modules for the Uncertainty book. -Writing a graduate level book on random media. -Developing a formal framework for joint advisorship and rotation of Ph.D. level students between the Statistics and Chemical Engineering Departments. -To widen the employment opportunities for undergraduate students with interdisciplinary training, special co-op programs will be pu rsued with selected industrial companies that indicated interest in broadly educated statistics and engineering students. This IGMS project is jointly supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).