The Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems at Mississippi State University: Solving Complex Problems with Innovative Solutions

The Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS) is an interdisciplinary research center. It provides innovative engineering, research, development, and technology transfer solutions focused on complex problems.  CAVS provides short-term solutions relevant to regional manufacturers while core research and capabilities build longer-term knowledge needed for sustained economic development within the United States. At the same time students gain valuable project experience that compliments their formal classroom learning.

The Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) effort at CAVS works within the Cooperative Computing (www.cavs.msstate.edu/cs) group to integrate technologies and resources to streamline knowledge creation and management.  Product Lifecycle Management softwares and methodologies are used at CAVS to manage and track data for various projects within the center.  Additionally, the PLM group works with students, researchers and manufacturers to identify appropriate solutions for industrial applications. The goal of CAVS PLM  is to enable organizations to better utilize existing human resources while leveraging technology to dramatically reduce lead and design times, thus increasing product innovation and manufacturing efficiency through early innovation, virtual assembly, and simulation. The PLM group at CAVS is committed to investigating next-generation virtual manufacturing solutions and methods within the context of the modern manufacturing environment, with respect to materials, manufacturing resources, human factors, and business administration. Additionally, this group is committed to seeking and disseminating affordable PLM solutions for small and medium-sized manufacturers and collaborative solutions for manufacturers and their suppliers.  For more information about CAVS PLM and what it can do for you, please contact Neil Littell at plm@cavs.msstate.edu.

The Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems’ (CAVS) research activities and innovative solutions are generated based upon the needs of industry, local, regional and national and various governmental agencies. These technologies are developed for transfer to the clients and are continuously being evaluated for commercialization. Knowledge regarding research projects can be exchanged with clients through secure communication portals provided by CAVS PLM group. These portals help facilitate effective multidisciplinary collaborative engineering to create and deliver innovative solutions to complex problems under confidential conditions.

CAVS works in conjunction with Mississippi State University’s (MSU) Office of Technology Commercialization (OTC) to facilitate licensing of MSU technologies. OTC’s mission is to foster an entrepreneurial environment and assess, protect, market, and license intellectual properties developed by MSU faculty, staff, and students. Commercialization of these technologies benefits society, fosters economic development, and provides income which is shared with the inventors and their colleges for reinvestment in future research.

The Human and Systems Engineering (HSE) research group at CAVS is committed to supporting the advancement of vehicle design and manufacturing through research and development of systems that focus on 1) the human component in product and process design and 2) enterprise computational systems and technologies. The HSE approach is multidisciplinary, coupling traditional engineering methodologies with research in human factors, ergonomics, cognitive science, learning and training systems, human-machine interfaces, telematics, and advanced computing technologies. Academic units involved include Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Industrial Engineering, Industrial Technology, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biological Engineering, and Cognitive Science.

The Human and Systems Engineering group focuses on both physical and cognitive aspects of the human being as an integral component in the design of products and manufacturing processes. This group is researching and developing methodologies for understanding and assessing ergonomics within the context of industrial product and process design using state-of-the-art software.  Investigations include the use of traditional analysis tools as well as state-of-the-art such as Dassault Systems Virtools and CATIA V5 as well as custom software including next generation digital human models and ergonomics analysis software.

The HSE group has access to an advanced driving simulator, a 16-camera Motion Analysis motion capture system, a Gypsy Suit electromechanical motion capture suit, EMG, thermography, virtual and augmented reality displays, and a synchronized video system to assist with ergonomics evaluation.  For more information about what HSE can do for you, please contact Gary McFadyen at mcfadyen@cavs.msstate.edu

The Advanced Learning Technologies (http://www.cavs.msstate.edu/alt/) group has a focus on providing the training infrastructure to support custom adaptive training for education and industry. The software runs on any Microsoft Windows computer and does not require a web server. The software, InSite Suite version 2.0 was developed into a working prototype under the Department of Labor (DoL) Workforce Investment Act grant entitled "Low-Cost Distributed Learning for Workforce Training".

The new version of the software has added an advanced content editor for importing and editing native PowerPoint slides; and the ability to graphically create modules and courses that can be published to InSite Suite's own Learning Management System (LMS) or a third-party LMS. The software is designed to be fielded in small to medium size businesses and education environments.

Currently, efforts are underway to develop PLM and CATIA V5 curriculum for deployment to students within CAVS and Mississippi State University. Plans are being made to market this content, making it available to other universities and industry, although a venue has not been defined.  CAVS is also actively looking for partners to develop case studies for our software.  "We have tremendous capability to rapidly produce adaptive and dynamic training environments.  We realize that each individual is different, and so training should adapt to each individual’s needs," said Jay Cain, the chief software architect of InSite Suite version 2.0.

In 2007, CAVS ALT group developed working relationships with Microsoft; ITWorx, Orametrix; Forrest General Hospital, Orion Instruments, Pearl River Community College; Science, Business, and Education, Inc., and Advanced Dental Technologies. Each of these organizations is either using or investigating InSite Suite v2.0. The group also gained extra visibility when they were accepted to exhibit InSite Suite at the Advanced Distributed Learning Implementation Fest in August 2006, the MRC Conference on High Technology in December of 2006, the ATSC 6th Annual Workshop in March of 2007, and the World's Best Technology Showcase in May 2007. Three provisional patents associated with InSite Suite v2.0 technology were applied for in 2007.  To find out how you can use or become involved with InSite Suite, please contact Melissa Riddle at melissa@cavs.msstate.edu.

CAVS is a member institute of the High Performance Computing Collaboratory (HPC2) at Mississippi State University (www.hpc.msstate.edu), an evolution of the MSU NSF Engineering Research Center for Computational Field Simulation. 

The HPC2 is a coalition of member centers and groups that share a common core objective of advancing the state-of-the-art in computational science and engineering using high performance computing; a common approach to research that embraces a multi-disciplinary, team-oriented concept; and a commitment to a full partnership between education, research, and service. The mission is to serve the University, State, and Nation through excellence in computational science and engineering.

The HPC² provides substantial high performance computing resources for use by its member centers, including a 10-teraflop 2048 processor AMD Opteron cluster, a 384 processor Intel Xeon cluster with InfiniBand interconnect, a 1038 processor Intel Pentium III cluster, a 128 processor SGI ORIGIN 3800, a 64 processor SGI ORIGIN 3800, a 64 processor Sun UltraSPARC cluster, and numerous additional special purpose machines. Data storage capabilities include a 65 terabyte high performance disk system and a 2 petabyte near-line storage system. The HPC²'s high-end visualization needs are met by an immersive CAVE-like virtual reality environment, two SGI Onyx2 graphics servers, and a 20 node visualization cluster. An access grid node allows for state-of-the-art video teleconferencing and remote collaboration.

Mississippi State University is a charter member of the Internet2 Consortium, and currently utilizes a 1 Gigabit connection to the Louisianna Optical Network Initiative (LONI) regional network for connectivity to Internet2/Newnet and the National LambdaRail (NLR).  The installation of a 10 Gigabit connection to NLR is currently underway.

These resources enable HPC² member centers such as CAVS to perform state-of-the-art analysis and simulations very quickly.  A very notably historical example of this can be found through a case study involving the then Ohio senator, John Glenn’s space shuttle flight. NASA Johnson Space Center called the HPC² seeking simulated analysis of the Space Shuttle Orbiter. The problem was the drag chute door was lost during main engine startup. (The NASA engineers wanted to know the dynamic pressure in the region of the missing chute door in order to estimate the aerodynamic loadings during reentry.) As it turned out, the parallel solver (our research) code had just been assembled for the first time when the Space Shuttle mission STS-95 was launched. The HPC² group loaded a previously supplied Space Shuttle Orbiter geometry into our integrated simulation environment, which allowed HPC² researchers to create the grids within hours. Initial simulation results were computed on a high performance computing cluster within two days, using roughly 50% of our computational resources.  This demonstrated an achievement that was a direct result of the HPC²’s mission and efforts.  The HPC2 has continued to develop and improve upon the technologies used for the Glenn mission, and NASA now routinely employs these technologies in the analysis of shuttle systems and flights.

Our researchers have continued to demonstrate the superior ability to simulate very complex real world problems with complex geometries in relative motion. These accomplishments have come from directed cross-disciplinary efforts involving various technologies: grid generation, field solution algorithms, and scientific visualization, coupled with computer and computational engineering. Without the HPC² structure, we could not have combined all of the various talents and technologies required. 

There are many other groups within CAVS and the HPC² who perform many different types of research and services.  From rapid prototyping and reverse engineering to material characterization and complex finite element analysis, CAVS can offer an innovative solution to your complex problems. To find out more about CAVS and what CAVS can offer you and your company, please call 662-325-5431, or visit www.cavs.msstate.edu.