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Title: Views on Ethical Issues in Research Labs: a University-Wide Survey
Date: 2021
Description: Full survey used for "Views on Ethical Issues in Research Labs" published in the journal Accountability in Research: Policies and Quality...
Show moreFull survey used for "Views on Ethical Issues in Research Labs" published in the journal Accountability in Research: Policies and Quality Assurance in 2021. This survey was completed in 2017.
Sponsorship: National Science Foundation
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Collection: Accountability in Research: Policies and Quality Assurance

Title: Supplemental Figures and Data _ Small-Scale Process Engineering for Inverse Phase Miniemulsion Polymerization of Hydrogel Nanoparticles for Therapeutic Applications
Date: 2025
Description: This data set supports the process development work described in the associated manuscript, capturing the transition from bench-scale...
Show moreThis data set supports the process development work described in the associated manuscript, capturing the transition from bench-scale synthesis to small-scale process development of hydrogel nanoparticles. It includes the raw and processed quantitative data for experimental variables tested during this scale-down effort. Additionally, the data set provides the original red-green channel versions of fluorescence microscopy images used in cell studies. In the manuscript, these images were adjusted to be accessible for readers with red-green color vision deficiency; here, the unmodified channel versions are made available to ensure scientific transparency and reproducibility.
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Title: Engineering Escherichia coli to produce and secrete colicins for rapid and selective biofilm cell killing
Date: 2021
Description: Bacterial biofilms are associated with chronic infectious diseases and are highly resistant to conventional...
Show moreBacterial biofilms are associated with chronic infectious diseases and are highly resistant to conventional antibiotics. Antimicrobial bacteriocins are alternatives to conventional antibiotics and are characterized by unique cell-killing mechanisms, including pore formation on cell membranes, nuclease activity, and cell wall synthesis inhibition. Here, we used cell-free protein synthesis to rapidly evaluate the antibiofilm activities of colicins E1, E2, and E3. We found that E2 (with DNase activity) most effectively killed target biofilm cells (i.e., the K361 strain) while leaving nontargeted biofilms intact. We then engineered probiotic Escherichia coli microorganisms with genetic circuits to controllably synthesize and secrete colicin E2, which successfully inhibited biofilms and killed preformed indicator biofilms. Our findings suggest that colicins rapidly and selectively kill target biofilm cells in multispecies biofilms and demonstrate the potential of using microorganisms engineered to produce antimicrobial colicin proteins as live therapeutic strategies to treat biofilm-associated infections.
Sponsorship: NIH-R15AI130988
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Title: Research in Architectural Education: Theory and Practice of Visual Training
Date: 2016, 12/12/2016
Collection: Enquiry

Title: Empirical Modeling of Public Safety to Voice Traffic to Aid Emergency Capacity
Creator: Taher, Tanim, Bacchus, Roger
Date: 2012-04-18, 2012-04-18
Description: An RF measurement system with high time resolution is implemented to determine the statistical characteristics of...
Show moreAn RF measurement system with high time resolution is implemented to determine the statistical characteristics of various channels in the Land Mobile Radio bands. The applicability of simple statistical models to the observed data is investigated, as well as their validity over short and long periods of time. The results show that the statistics of the idle and holding times of communication on these channels vary significantly over time and demonstrate daily periodicity, requiring non-stationary models to accurately represent them. Over short durations of time however, conventional distributions such as the exponential and lognormal may adequately characterize the properties of these quantities, allowing convenient and compact representations of the data. Results based on empirical data are presented to quantify the probability of stationarity for voice traffic within a time span of given length. The findings are useful for network planning or streamlining, network simulation and modeling, and investigation of dynamic spectrum access.
Sponsorship: National Science Foundation, Federal Communications Commission, Motorola, Cleversafe, Roberson & Associates LLC
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Title: Replacement as a Problem for Justification of Preventative Detention
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2011, 2011-04
Publisher: John Jay College of Criminal Justice of The City University of New Yor
Description: What makes Don E. Scheid’s article on indefinite detention interesting is that he thinks through many of the moral...
Show moreWhat makes Don E. Scheid’s article on indefinite detention interesting is that he thinks through many of the moral issues inherent in attempting to prevent (or, rather, keep to a minimum) certain kinds of violent crime, an attempt we have come to call (however unwisely) ‘‘the war on terror.’’ Scheid takes ‘‘war’’ as literally as possible, while making the reasonable assumption that this war, unlike wars generally, is not a temporary expedient responding to a moral emergency but an institution that must operate at full power for a long time, decades at least. Scheid’s argument yields a long list of preconditions for justified indefinite preventive detention: a high standard of dangerousness (‘‘mega-terrorism’’), a reasonable standard of proof of dangerousness, as good an investigation as conditions will allow, adequate resources for the defense, a hearing before a fair and independent tribunal, detention under the most comfortable conditions practical, and periodic review of the detainee’s supposed dangerousness. To these preconditions one more should be added: that detaining the persons in question will reduce the danger posed. I take this additional precondition to follow from Scheid’s own defense of indefinite detention, not from an independent argument. Scheid limits his argument to megaterrorists because the scale of destruction they have already achieved (for example, destruction of the World Trade Center) shows them to be dangerous on a scale ordinary crime is not and so to invite measures of prevention beyond what seems necessary (or proper) for ordinary criminals. Scheid explicitly declines to consider the non-consequentialist argument that preventive detention is what a mega-terrorist deserves for his character or for what he has already done. Scheid’s argument for preventive detention is consequentialist throughout: we may, and should, detain to prevent (or at least substantially reduce the probability of) the large-scale destruction of life that mega-terrorists aim at. We may justifiably deny a few, including some innocent persons, their freedom because, and only because, it makes the rest of us, the great majority, considerably safer. My additional precondition can be defended in the same way: where there is no danger posed, any detention is (all else equal) a net loss in happiness, well being, or whatever reasonable measure of consequences we adopt. A precondition of preventative detention must be a net reduction in danger posed. Where what is proposed is an institution of preventative detention, the institution must have that effect overall. What I shall argue here is that preventive detention generally fails to satisfy this condition and Scheid’s indefinite preventive detention of mega-terrorists always does. An institution to prevent terrorism by detaining terrorists cannot, in practice, significantly reduce the danger terrorism poses.
Criminal Justice Ethics. Vol. 30, No. 1, April 2011, 90-97.
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Title: Learning the Lingo? Gender, Prestige and Linguistic Adaptation in Review Communities
Creator: Hemphill, Libby, Otterbacher, Jahna
Date: 2011-11-19, 2012-02
Publisher: ACM Press
Description: Women and men communicate differently in both face-to- face and computer-mediated environments. We study linguistic...
Show moreWomen and men communicate differently in both face-to- face and computer-mediated environments. We study linguistic patterns considered gendered in reviews contributed to the Internet Movie Database. IMDb has been described as a male-majority community, in which females contribute fewer reviews and enjoy less prestige than males. Analyzing reviews posted by prolific males and females, we hypothesize that females adjust their communication styles to be in sync with their male counterparts. We find evidence that while certain characteristics of “female language” persevere over time (e.g., frequent use of pronouns) others (e.g., hedging) decrease with time. Surprisingly, we also find that males often increase their use of “female” features. Our results indicate, that even when they resemble men’s reviews linguistically, women’s reviews still enjoy less prestige and smaller audiences.
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Title: Tweet Acts: How Constituents Lobby Congress via Twitter
Creator: Hemphill, Libby, Roback, Andrew
Date: 2014, 2014
Description: Twitter is increasingly becoming a medium through which constituents can lobby their elected representatives in...
Show moreTwitter is increasingly becoming a medium through which constituents can lobby their elected representatives in Congress about issues that matter to them. Past research has focused on how citizens communicate with each other or how members of Congress (MOCs) use social media in general; our research examines how citizens communicate with MOCs. We contribute to existing literature through the careful examination of hundreds of citizen-authored tweets and the development of a categorization scheme to describe common strategies of lobbying on Twitter. Our findings show that contrary to past research that assumed citizens used Twitter to merely shout out their opinions on issues, citizens utilize a variety of sophisticated techniques to impact political outcomes.
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Title: 'Ain't No One Here But Us Social Forces' : Constructing the Social Responsibility of Engineers.
Creator: Davis, Michael
Date: 2011-04, 2011-06
Publisher: Springer
Description: There are many ways to avoid responsibility, for example, explaining what happens as the work of the gods, fate,...
Show moreThere are many ways to avoid responsibility, for example, explaining what happens as the work of the gods, fate, society, or the system. For engineers, “technology” or “the organization” will serve this purpose quite well. We may distinguish at least nine (related) senses of “responsibility”, the most important of which are: (a) responsibility-as-causation (the storm is responsible for flooding), (b) responsibility-as-liability (he is the person responsible and will have to pay), (c) responsibility-as-competency (he’s a responsible person, that is, he’s rational), (d) responsibility-as-office (he’s the responsible person, that is, the person in charge), and (e) a responsibility-as-domain-of-tasks (these are her responsibilities, that is, the things she is supposed to do). For all but the causal sense of responsibility, responsibility may be taken (in a relatively straightforward sense)—and generally is. Why then would anyone want to claim that certain technologies make it impossible to attribute responsibility to engineers (or anyone else)? In this paper, I identify seven arguments for that claim and explain why each is fallacious. The most important are: (1) the argument from “many hands”, (2) the argument from individual ignorance, and (3) the argument from blind forces. Each of these arguments makes the same fundamental mistake, the assumption that a certain factual situation, being fixed, settles responsibility, that is, that individuals, either individually or by some group decision, cannot take responsibility. I conclude by pointing out the sort of decisions (and consequences) engineers have explicitly taken responsibility for and why taking responsibility for them is rational, all things considered. There is no technological bar to such responsibility.
Science and Engineering Ethics.
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Title: Continuous Generalization of 2’s Complement Arithmetic
Date: 2022-11-26

Title: Controlling biofilms using synthetic biology approaches
Date: 2020
Description: Bacterial biofilms are formed by the complex but ordered regulation of intra- or inter-cellular communication,...
Show moreBacterial biofilms are formed by the complex but ordered regulation of intra- or inter-cellular communication, environmentally responsive gene expression, and secretion of extracellular polymeric substances. Given the robust nature of bio?lms due to the non-growing nature of bio?lm bacteria and the physical barrier provided by the extracellular matrix, eradicating bio?lms is a very di?cult task to accomplish with conventional antibiotic or disinfectant treatments. Synthetic biology holds substantial promise for controlling bio?lms by improving and expanding existing biological tools, introducing novel functions to the system, and re-conceptualizing gene regulation. This review summarizes synthetic biology approaches used to eradicate bio?lms via protein engineering of bio?lm-related enzymes, utilization of synthetic genetic circuits, and the development of functional living agents. Synthetic biology also enables bene?cial applications of bio?lms through the production of biomaterials and patterning bio?lms with speci?c temporal and spatial structures. Advances in synthetic biology will add novel bio?lm functionalities for future therapeutic, biomanufacturing, and environmental applications.
Sponsorship: NIH-R15AI130988, NSF CBET-1917130
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Title: Incorporation of non-standard amino acids into proteins: challenges, recent achievements, and emerging applications
Date: 2019
Description: The natural genetic code only allows for 20 standard amino acids in protein translation, but genetic code...
Show moreThe natural genetic code only allows for 20 standard amino acids in protein translation, but genetic code reprogramming enables the incorporation of non-standard amino acids (NSAAs). Proteins containing NSAAs provide enhanced or novel properties and open diverse applications. With increased attention to the recent advancements in synthetic biology, various improved and novel methods have been developed to incorporate single and multiple distinct NSAAs into proteins. However, various challenges remain in regard to NSAA incorporation, such as low yield and misincorporation. In this review, we summarize the recent efforts to improve NSAA incorporation by utilizing orthogonal translational system optimization, cell-free protein synthesis, genomically recoded organisms, artificial codon boxes, quadruplet codons, and orthogonal ribosomes, before closing with a discussion of the emerging applications of NSAA incorporation.
Sponsorship: NIH R15AI130988
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Title: Optimizing Cell-Free Protein Synthesis for Increased Yield and Activity of Colicins
Date: 2019
Publisher: MDPI
Description: Colicins are antimicrobial proteins produced by Escherichia coli that hold great promise as viable complements...
Show moreColicins are antimicrobial proteins produced by Escherichia coli that hold great promise as viable complements or alternatives to antibiotics. Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) is a useful production platform for toxic proteins because it eliminates the need to maintain cell viability, a common problem in cell-based production. Previously, we demonstrated that colicins produced by CFPS based on crude Escherichia coli lysates are e?ective in eradicating antibiotic-tolerant bacteria known as persisters. However, we also found that some colicins have poor solubility or low cell-killing activity. In this study, we improved the solubility of colicin M from 16% to nearly 100% by producing it in chaperone-enriched E. coli extracts, resulting in enhanced cell-killing activity. We also improved the cytotoxicity of colicin E3 by adding or co-expressing the E3 immunity protein during the CFPS reaction, suggesting that the E3 immunity protein enhances colicin E3 activity in addition to protecting the host strain. Finally, we con?rmed our previous ?nding that active colicins can be rapidly synthesized by observing colicin E1 production over time in CFPS. Within three hours of CFPS incubation, colicin E1 reached its maximum production yield and maintained high cytotoxicity during longer incubations up to 20 h. Taken together, our ?ndings indicate that colicin production can be easily optimized for improved solubility and activity using the CFPS platform.
Sponsorship: NIH R15AI130988
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Title: Editorial, "Cell-Free Synthetic Biology": Synthetic Biology Meets Cell-Free Protein Synthesis
Date: 2019
Publisher: MDPI
Description: Sponsorship: NIH R15AI130988

Title: Assessing Graduate Student Progress in Engineering Ethics
Creator: Davis, Michael, Feinerman, Alan
Date: 2010-11-10, 2011
Publisher: Springer
Description: Under a grant from the National Science Foundation, the authors (and others) undertook to integrate ethics into...
Show moreUnder a grant from the National Science Foundation, the authors (and others) undertook to integrate ethics into graduate engineering classes at three universities—and to assess success in a way allowing comparison across classes (and institutions). This paper describes the attempt to carry out that assessment. Standard methods of assessment turned out to demand too much class time. Under pressure from instructors, the authors developed an alternative method that is both specific in content to individual classes and allows comparison across classes. Results are statistically significant for ethical sensitivity and knowledge. They show measurable improvement in a single semester.
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Title: Single Spool Magazine Tape Recorder
Creator: Camras, Marvin
Date: 1962-03-13
Description: Sponsorship: Armour Research Foundation of Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent

Title: Magnetic Recording Apparatus
Creator: Lang, Albert P.
Date: 1962-04-10
Description: Sponsorship: Armour Research Foundation of Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent

Title: Recording Apparatus
Creator: Lang, Albert P.
Date: 1962-09-11
Description: Sponsorship: Armour Research Foundation of Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent

Title: Metal Cladding Process and Products Resulting Therefrom
Creator: Rostoker, William, Domagala, Robert F.
Date: 1962-10-30
Description: Sponsorship: Armour Research Foundation of Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent

Title: Spraying Process
Creator: Bradstreet, Samuel W., Griffith, James S.
Date: 1956-09-18
Description: Sponsorship: Armour Research Foundation of Illinois Institute of Technology
United States Patent

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