New Department of Defense, Energy grants prepare SFSU students for industry jobs
The grants expand research opportunities in engineering, robotics and quantum computing
Technology is constantly evolving, which means industries — and the people who work for them — must change to keep up. San Francisco State University faculty want to make sure their students have the skills and flexibility they need to compete in these growing, ever-shifting fields such as civil, mechanical and computer engineering and quantum computing.
Three new grants — two from the Department of Defense (DOD) and one from the Department of Energy (DOE) — will expand the research capabilities of San Francisco State students and better prepare them to achieve their academic and career goals. The faculty leading these projects are in SF State’s School of Engineering (SOE) and Department of Computer Science.
Structural hazard mitigation research
A $541,541 DOD grant was awarded to SOE Professor Zhaoshuo Jiang, who leads the Intelligent Structural Hazard Mitigation lab. The funds support purchasing two state-of-the-art shake tables (Quanser Corporation’s six-degrees of freedom hexapod motion platforms) and a high-throughput data acquisition system (DAQ). This new equipment will significantly advance the capacity of performing experimental testing with accurate sensing and control, thereby enhancing the institution’s ability to support diverse research areas that are of interest to DOD.
Human-machine performance lab
DOD awarded another $409,433 grant to School of Engineering Associate Professor David Quintero to acquire state-of-the-art instrumentation for a human-machine performance lab. The new equipment will include a treadmill, markerless motion capture and human-machine interaction equipment like a robotic leg, hip exoskeleton and rehabilitation robot. Combining these instruments will help establish a research system that integrates humans and machines to enhance human physical and cognitive performance.
Quantum computing comes to SFSU
SF State, along with Lawerence Berkeley Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, is part of new multi-institutional project funded by the DOE. Associate Professor of Computer Science Wes Bethel and Assistant Professor Daniel Huang were awarded $250,000 as part of the larger five-year grant aiming to bridge the gap between theoretical quantum advantages and practical scientific applications.
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