Title: IEEE UFFC Distinguished Lecturer: “Piezoelectric Devices for Crisis Technology”
Speaker: Dr. Kenji Uchino, Professor Electrical Engineering, Director, International Center for Actuators & Transducers, Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University
Date: Monday, April 9, 2018
Time: 10:30am-11:30am
Location: NASA/LaRC, Bldg. 1293, Room 222
Abstract: There are four factors that have influences on engineering: Social/culture/religion, Technology/science, Economics, and Politics/law. The strength of the impact of these factors becomes different according to history. Alchemy of the 16th century is an example of “Socio-Engineering”. From the Christian doctrine, “Heliocentric model” was denied, but “alchemy” was approved. Religion was controlling science. In the 17th~18th centuries, people were solved from the spell of religion and engineering based on science and technology, so-called “Techno-Engineering” is respected instead. In the 18th~19th centuries, technologies for mass production at low manufacturing cost were required and “Econo-Engineering” became mainstream to enhance national strength. The intention of increasing national wealth and military strength increased friction and that led to the First and Second World War in the 20th century. Engineering of this period is mainly government-led production of war weapons, and it was a beginning of “Politico-Engineering”. After the wars, mass production technologies for the reconstruction/recovery revived, but when the 21st century began, as a consequent result, environmental degradation, resource depletion, and food famine have become major problems. Global regulations are strongly called, and the government-initiated technology (“politico-engineering”) has become important again in order to overcome the regulations. Politico-Engineering covers (1) legally-regulated normal technologies such as sustainability, and (2) crisis technologies.
This paper introduces leading actuator/sensor and piezoelectric technologies, relating with the above “crisis” technologies, aiming at further research expansion in this area. Crisis technologies are categorized into five types: (a) natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning, etc.), (b) epidemic/infectious diseases (smallpox, polio, measles, and HIV), (c) enormous accident (Three-Mile-Island core meltdown accident, BP oil spill etc.), (d) intentional accidents (acts of terrorism, criminal activity, etc.), (e) civil-war, war, territorial aggression. I will discuss on magnetoelectric earthquake monitoring devices, contagious bacteria sensors, hypochlorous acid disinfection humidifiers, nuclear power plant accident monitors, unmanned underwater vehicles, stealth and anti-stealth submarine technologies, Gamma-ray airport security check systems, and piezo-generators for ammunitions, as examples.
Biography: Kenji Uchino, one of the pioneers in piezoelectric actuators, is Founding Director of International Center for Actuators and Transducers and Professor of EE and MatSE, Distinguished Honors Faculty of Schreyer Honors College at The Penn State University. He was Associate Director at The US Office of Naval Research – Global Tokyo Office (2010-2014). He was also the Founder and Senior Vice President of Micromechatronics Inc., State College, PA (2004-20010). He became Research Associate/Assistant Professor (1976) in Physical Electronics Department at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, then, joined Sophia University, Japan as Associate Professor in Physics Department in 1985. He was recruited from The Penn State University in 1991. He was the Founding Chair of Smart Actuators/Sensors Committee, Japan Technology Transfer Association sponsored by Ministry of Economics, Trading and Industries, Japan (1987-2014), and is a long-term Chair of International Conference on New Actuators, Messe Bremen, Germany since 1997.
His research interest is in solid state physics, especially in ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics, including basic research on theory, materials, device designing and fabrication processes, as well as application development of solid state actuators/sensors for precision positioners, micro-robotics, ultrasonic motors, smart structures, piezoelectric transformers and energy harvesting. K. Uchino is known as the discoverer/inventor of the following topics: (1) lead magnesium niobate (PMN)-based electrostricive materials, (2) cofired multilayer piezoelectric actuators (MLA), (3) superior piezoelectricity in relaxor-lead titanate-based piezoelectric single crystals (PZN-PT), (4) photostrictive phenomenon, (5) shape memory ceramics, (6) magnetoelectric composite sensors, (7) transient response control scheme of piezoelectric actuators (Pulse-Drive technique), (8) micro ultrasonic motors, (9) multilayer disk piezoelectric transformers, and (10) piezoelectric loss characterization methodology. He has authored 570 papers, 75 books and 31 patents in the ceramic actuator area.
He is a Fellow of American Ceramic Society, and IEEE, and also is a recipient of 29 awards, including Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE UFFC Society (2018), International Ceramic Award from Global Academy of Ceramics (2016), IEEE-UFFC Ferroelectrics Recognition Award (2013), Inventor Award from Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems, Virginia Tech (2011), Premier Research Award from The Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (2011).
Kenji Uchino, one of the pioneers in piezoelectric actuators, is Founding Director of International Center for Actuators and Transducers and Professor of EE and MatSE, Distinguished Honors Faculty of Schreyer Honors College at Penn State University. He was Associate Director (Global Technology Awareness) at The US Office of Naval Research – Global Tokyo Office as IPA from 2010 till 2014. He was also the Founder and Senior Vice President & CTO of Micromechatronics Inc., State College, PA. Uchino was awarded his MS and Ph. D. degrees from Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. He became Research Associate/Assistant Professor (1976) in Physical Electronics Department at this university, then, he joined Sophia University, Japan as Associate Professor in Physics Department in 1985. He was recruited from The Penn State University in 1991. He was also involved with Space Shuttle Utilizing Committee in NASDA, Japan during 1986-88, and Vice President of NF Electronic Instruments, USA, during 1992-94. He was the Founding Chair of Smart Actuators/Sensors Committee, Japan Technology Transfer Association sponsored by Ministry of Economics, Trading and Industries, Japan from 1987 to 2014, and is a long-term Chair of International Conference on New Actuators, Messe Bremen, Germany since 1997. He was also the associate editor for Journal of Advanced Performance Materials, J. Intelligent Materials Systems and Structures and Japanese Journal of Applied Physics. Uchino served as Administrative Committee Member (Elected) of IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (1998-2000) and as Secretary of American Ceramic Society, Electronics Division (2002-2003).
His research interest is in solid state physics, especially in ferroelectrics and piezoelectrics, including basic research on theory, materials, device designing and fabrication processes, as well as application development of solid state actuators/sensors for precision positioners, micro-robotics, ultrasonic motors, smart structures, piezoelectric transformers and energy harvesting. K. Uchino is known as the discoverer/inventor of the following famous topics: (1) lead magnesium niobate (PMN)-based electrostricive materials, (2) cofired multilayer piezoelectric actuators (MLA), (3) superior piezoelectricity in relaxor-lead titanate-based piezoelectric single crystals (PZN-PT), (4) photostrictive phenomenon, (5) shape memory ceramics, (6) magnetoelectric composite sensors, (7) transient response control scheme of piezoelectric actuators (Pulse-Drive technique), (8) micro ultrasonic motors, (9) multilayer disk piezoelectric transformers, and (10) piezoelectric loss characterization methodology. On-going research projects are also in the above areas, especially in the last three items (8), (9) and (10) most recently. He has authored 570 papers, 75 books and 31 patents in the ceramic actuator area. 47 papers/books among his publications have been cited more than 100 times, leading to his average h-index 70. Total citation number 25,600 and annual average citation number 480 are very high in College of Engineering.
He was also awarded his MBA degree from St. Francis University (2008), and authored a textbook, “Entrepreneurship for Engineers” for College of Business. He is a Fellow of American Ceramic Societysince 1997, a Fellow of IEEE since 2012, and also is a recipient of 29 awards, including Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE UFFC Society (2018), International Ceramic Award from Global Academy of Ceramics (2016), IEEE-UFFC Ferroelectrics Recognition Award (2013), Inventor Award from Center for Energy Harvesting Materials and Systems, Virginia Tech (2011), Premier Research Award from The Penn State Engineering Alumni Society (2011), the Japanese Society of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics Award on Outstanding Academic Book (2008), SPIE (Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers), Smart Product Implementation Award (2007), R&D 100 Award (2007), ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) Adaptive Structures Prize (2005), Outstanding Research Award from Penn State Engineering Society (1996), Academic Scholarship from Nissan Motors Scientific Foundation (1990), Best Movie Memorial Award at Japan Scientific Movie Festival.