Armour R&D gives undergraduate engineering students at Illinois Tech opportunities for hands-on work and direct experience with the research and development process.
As an Armour R&D participant, you’ll receive a stipend to work with a faculty member, gaining valuable research and development experience and professional mentorship.
With a range of projects, including researching water desalination methods, detecting Alzheimer’s disease using MRI, and developing open-source GPS, Armour R&D offers opportunities both for students interested in discovering fundamental science and students who want to develop and implement technology that is based on research findings.
This year-round program offers you the chance to work on projects that tackle real-world problems while gaining skills that are highly valued in the engineering profession.
Participants selected for this competitive program conduct their project over the course of 10 weeks during the semester and showcase their work at the Armour R&D Expo.
Students may select a project proposed by a faculty member or develop a proposal for a project in conjunction with a faculty member.
The application for the spring 2025 semester is currently and will be closed at 5 p.m. CST on January 6. The spring 2025 Armour R&D program runs from January 27 to April 4, 2025.
Students involved in the spring 2025 semester can expect to participate in the Armour R&D Expo and to submit an abstract to the Â鶹APP Undergraduate Research Symposium (CAURS) spring 2025.
For more information, contact engineering@iit.edu
Closed-Loop Control of Cell Function
Faculty: Abhinav Bhushan (BME)
Description: The goal of this project is to research and build a Matlab model to carry out closed-control control of cell function.
Microfluidic Devices for Patterning Cells
Faculty: Abhinav Bhushan (BME)
Description: The goal of this project is to pattern cells in specific locations within a microfluidic device.
Assess Cosmic Radiation Damage
Faculty: Abhinav Bhushan (BME)
The goal of this project is to assess damage caused by cosmic radiation (outer space) by growing organisms in a microfluidic device.
Intraoperative Fluorescence Guided Assistance of Head and Neck Cancer Resection
Faculty: Kenneth Tichauer (BME)
We are working with a head and neck cancer clinic in the Netherlands to develop fluorescence imaging systems to help the surgeons better identify 1) whether they have removed the complete primary tumor, and 2) whether cancer has spread to the first lymph node draining the tumor or not. By providing this information to the surgeons in an intraoperative time-frame, we have the chance to reduce the number of callback surgeries and cases where patients are sent home with remaining cancer. The projects span wet lab (imaging agent chemistry, cell culture, animal work), optical hardware, and software development and we are open to considering applicants with experience/interest in any of these areas.
Optimal Design of Precast Sections Fabricated with Novel High-Early Strength Concretes
Faculty: Matthew Gombeda (CAEE)
The project will focus on developing, fabricating, and testing prototype prefabricated concrete cross-sections fabricated with novel and sustainable high-early strength concrete formulations. The scope of work will combine structural analysis modeling and experimental work in the laboratory to first theoretically propose novel cross-section shapes, the perform of which will then be validated using experimental test data.
Application of Embedded Systems, Microcontrollers, Analog Circuits in Buildings
Faculty: Mohammad Heidarinejad (CAEE)
This project will focus on leveraging recent developments in low-cost sensors and microcontrollers to develop and deploy smart building sensing and controls solutions, especially for our steam systems (i.e., low-cost steam traps and radiator valve controls solutions). In addition, students will use different filters (e.g., Elliptical, Butterworth, RC, and RF) using LTSpice or similar tools, as simulator, schematic capture and waveform viewer.
Developing a Simple and Inexpensive Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Device to Visualize Airflow and Aerosol Distribution Patterns
Faculty: Mohammad Heidarinejad (CAEE)
This project focuses on developing a simple and inexpensive DIY device to visualize airflow and aerosol distributions inside of a room-sized environmental chamber. This project will provide unique hands-on experiences for students to understand the importance of air flow patterns on indoor air quality.
Building Systems Semantic Models
Faculty: Mohammad Heidarinejad (CAEE)
This project will focus on developing building systems semantic models that integrate best practices in computer science, such as knowledge representation, reasoning, machine learning techniques, with other engineering models (electrical, mechanical, architectural). Knowledge of working with object-oriented programming languages (e.g., Python/Java), understanding of semantic web technologies (e.g., XML, RDF, SHACL, SPARQL), or familiarity with building mechanical systems and tools (i.e., Revit, AutoCAD) would be beneficial.
Controlled Flow Environment: Turbulence Box Facility Design
Faculty: Douglas Carter (MMAE)
The study of vehicles, particles, or droplets and their response to turbulence requires an environment that can be precisely controlled. The most successfully built facilities of this kind use panels of pressurized air jets that are directed facing each other and turned on and off in such a way as to produce turbulence with controlled intensity. In this project, the student will work with a team to design the largest turbulence box facility ever built tailored specifically to foster state-of-the-art 3D particle tracking velocimetry in the boxes' central region.
Micro-Scale Metal Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites in Additive Manufacturing
Faculty: James Mann (MMAE)
The research will explore aspects of additive manufacturing by 3D printing a new class of metal fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites. The goal of the project is to experimentally investigate the effects of 3D printing process parameters (nozzle temperature, printing velocity, and layer height) on the process performance (optical, surface texture, and mechanical properties) using fused filament fabrication (FFF). The model material systems will include PETG and TPU thermoplastic filaments reinforced with 5-30% weight Al6061-T6 aluminum alloy micro-fiber. The project will involve and understanding of morphology and topography of micro-scale metal fiber and experiential learning with hands-on optical microscopy, digital imaging, and 3D printing.
Understanding the Physics of Human Whistling
Faculty: Francisco Ruiz (MMAE)
It may sound unbelievable, but we still don't know what makes the sound when a person whistles, and why so many people never figure out how to do it. The National Science Foundation has given us a grant to study just that. This involves primarily experimental fluid mechanics, some computer analysis, and lots of 3D-printing. There is also a collaboration planned with the VanderCook College of Music.
Levitation Melting and Synthesis of Alloy Materials
Faculty: Heng Wang (MMAE)
We want to invite a motivated undergraduate student to design, build and test a setup which could enable fast melting, mixing, and formation of alloy materials. being levitated while they melt could eliminate potential contaminations. Stirring due to alternating magnetic fields promote thorough mixing thus great uniformity. Watching metals melt while afloat is very fun.
Atmospheric Lagrangian Coherent Structures
Faculty: Seebany Datta-Barua (MMAE)
The objective of this work is to look at the relationship between Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs) and the polar vortex in the mesosphere. The student will modify and run Matlab codes for this calculation, applied to atmospheric models.
Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R)
Faculty: Seebany Datta-Barua (MMAE)
GNSS-R is the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) as a radar to monitor Earth’s surface. The student will run a software-defined receiver in Matlab to compute the signal-to-noise collected from the Antarctic glacier surface.
