RAMP 2023

Research Academics & Mentoring Pathways (RAMP) 2023 was an outstanding success. For the first time, we had more high school students (ten) than new first-year engineering students (nine). All students represented 12 different high schools. See our participant profiles.

Our new RAMP ’23 engineering group includes future graduates from the disciplines of civil, environmental, electrical, computer, biomedical, mechanical and industrial engineering. First-year students also enrolled in Calculus 1 or Pre-Calculus 2 during the six-week program, while high school students explored a diversity of engineering disciplines.

This year, RAMP focused on providing students skills in conducting research and connecting students to mentors from six companies: Abiomed, Acentech, Analog Devices, Azenta Life Sciences, Brooks Automation and Red Hat.

Six RAMP first-year students have been awarded the immersive research scholarship.

Three teams were formed through students self-selecting a research topic of interest. Two of the three final presentations are available to watch on the RAMP YouTube channel.

Acoustics Research Group

The project explored the application of inaudible sound using ultrasonic waves – specifically, the use of amplitude modulation and demodulation for focusing sound. Using ultrasonic sensors and Arduino micro-controllers, the group determined the location of objects using distance measurements and analyzed the effect of different materials on the accuracy of these measurements. The project included experimentation with the output from the audio spotlight speaker, and integrated hardware instrumentation with MATLAB code to plot the waves and zoom in and see their structure.

• Team: Ava Argento, Luca Bove, Calvin Silver, Janie Wu, Kai-Xing Yue
• Faculty Mentors: Kavitha Chandra, Electrical & Computer Engineering (ECE); Charles Thompson, ECE

Cybersecurity Research Group

The project involved bypassing an alarm system on a door while only being able to access the door from the outside. By looking at different adversarial models, or powers the adversary has over the system, and being mindful of these while trying to break into several locations, a series of attacks was developed and tested on a prototype system. After the attacks were tested, solutions were developed to prevent exploitation of the entry vectors on the alarm system.

• Team: Andrew Barber, Lili Bottan, David Green, Jr., Antonio Hbaiter, Gwen Marcotte, Naira Sanchez, Katrina Wong
• Faculty Mentor: Orlando Arias, ECE

Industrial Automation Research Group

The project included an investigation of human and environmental impact in the industrial automation industry. It was discovered that all industrial plants, which are machines that produce products for consumers, harm the environment and pose a threat to the labor market. As a response to this real-world problem, our group calculated the energy consumption of the industrial automation PLC simulation to understand the carbon footprint impact on the environment. We learned as a team how to wire and program Component Ladder Workbench, while improving our communication skills.

• Team: Aryaman Banerjee, Kerry Lam, Neel Makuden, Nell Neary, Nischay Singh, Christine Tenney, Jacqueline Tran
• Faculty Mentors: David Claudio, IE and graduate student Andrea Vivaldi.  Special Contributor:  Maria Velazquez, IE

Industry Mentors

We would like to offer our most heartfelt gratitude to our industry mentors:

• Abiomed: Joanne Mavroides, Caitlyn Hastie, Skylar Buswell
• Acentech: Ben Davenny, Allie Lam, Kelsey Rogers
• Analog Devices: Roxann Broughton-Blanchard, Isabelle Liu, Marine Maisonneuve, Ben Rafla, Carolyn Reistad, Hira Saleem, Reema Saleem, Dorant Smith, Susan Stevens, Caitlin Weinstein
• Azenta Life Sciences: Giana Vierheller, Erica Waller
• Brooks Automation: Lillian Stewart, Allyson Toppi
• Red Hat: Rahul Bajaj, Aaron Conole, Salvatore Daniele, Heidi Dempsey, Surbhi Kanthed, Rashid Khan, Vrinda Punj, Michael Santana, Jen Stacy, Shaun Strohmer, John Westcott