Friday, September 03, 2021

NTU Singapore and Hyundai Motor Group to develop advanced solutions for electric vehicle manufacturing

NANYANG TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY

Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and Hyundai Motor Group (the Group) have entered into an agreement to conduct a series of joint research projects focusing on advanced solutions for the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs) and to develop future mobility solutions.

Focusing on Industry 4.0 technologies, these projects aim to develop solutions that can transform conventional car manufacturing facilities into state-of-the-art factories of the future.

Four pilot projects on artificial intelligence (AI) and additive manufacturing (3D printing) will be explored in the initial stage which starts this month.

To ensure the quality of Battery Electric Vehicles (vehicles powered entirely by batteries), one of the projects aims to develop machine learning algorithms for vehicle image processing. The application of an AI-based image processing sensor in the plant will help detect defects and anomalies during the manufacturing process, ensuring high levels of safety and reliability of the final product.

Another project will look at integrating 3D printing in EV manufacturing. Researchers will explore how 3D printers can be effectively used in the customisation of automotive components, and how they may be implemented in a smart factory operation. This will support the smart manufacturing vision, where customers can order and customise a car model to their taste.

NTU Senior Vice President (Research) Professor Lam Khin Yong and Hyundai Motor Group Senior Vice President Hong Bum Jung signed the collaboration agreement at a ceremony held at NTU on Wednesday (1 Sep). It was witnessed by NTU President Professor Subra Suresh and President & Chief Innovation Officer of Hyundai Motor Group, Youngcho Chi.

NTU President Professor Subra Suresh said, “The partnership between NTU and Hyundai Motor Group provides one more example of how our close collaboration with industry plays an important role in developing relevant solutions to address real world issues. This is in line with the NTU 2025 strategic plan, which aims to address some of the grand challenges facing humanity. This collaboration with Hyundai Motor Group will build on NTU’s core strengths, in areas such as additive manufacturing, AI, autonomous and electric vehicles, and big data to bring about benefits to the automotive industry, Singapore and the global society.”

The signing ceremony follows an earlier announcement made in October 2020 during the virtual groundbreaking ceremony for Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Centre in Singapore (HMGICS). During the ceremony, NTU was announced as the first academic research partner for the Group’s HMGICS initiative.

President & Chief Innovation Officer of Hyundai Motor Group, Youngcho Chi said, “HMGICS aims to build an ecosystem for the future mobility industry based on open innovation. We are going to strengthen collaboration with NTU and develop advanced solutions to revolutionise future mobility value chain going forward.”

The HMGICS is an open research facility for the Group’s future mobility research and development. Located at Singapore’s Jurong Innovation District, the construction of HMGICS is expected to be completed at the end of 2022. The facility will only be five- minute drive from the NTU Smart Campus, which is a living testbed of innovative digital and tech-enabled solutions.

Future initiatives to nurture talent

Aside from research and development projects, the latest agreement between NTU and Hyundai Motor Group also paves the way for future collaborations aimed at nurturing talent in the automotive sector.

For example, the partners will launch 3D printing competitions, focusing on the innovative use of the technology in automotive engineering. The aim is to drive interest in EV manufacturing and to encourage undergraduates to imagine what future mobility could look like. At the same time, the competition will be an opportunity for people to gain insights into the benefits of 3D printing technology in EVs.

NTU students and researchers will also benefit from joint educational seminars, which will provide a platform for industrial experts from the Group and NTU academics to exchange ideas and build their skills.

***END***

Improving buyer-freelancer communications in the gig economy

News from the Journal of Marketing

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Researchers from University of Melbourne, Vrije Universiteit, Babson College, and University of Surrey published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that provides generalized communication principles, and examples of how to apply them, for successful bid writing in the gig economy.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Communication in the Gig Economy: Buying and Selling in Online Freelance Marketplaces” and is authored by Stephan Ludwig, Dennis Herhausen, Dhruv Grewal, Liliana Bove, Sabine Benoit, Ko de Ruyter, and Peter Urwin.

The gig economy is global and growing exponentially. In the US alone, millions of buyers and freelancers in freelance marketplaces contribute $1.2 trillion in value to the economy. Online freelance marketplaces, such as Upwork, Fiverr, PeoplePerHour, and Toptal have prompted massive transformations of work. In relatively anonymous interactions via text-based messages, buyers first post call-for-bids for their gigs. In turn, interested freelancers submit bids to offer their services.

Yet, while 59% of U.S. companies use a flexible workforce to some degree, more than one-third of their gigs are never filled or completed. The research team explains that “Uncertainty during these text-based interactions leads to high rates of gigs that go unfulfilled, reduced freelancers’ bid success, or less-than-optimal pricing for freelancers. Our investigation uncovers principles for writing call-for-bids and bids that manage that uncertainty and lead to greater success filling gigs and finding work.”

How Buyers Can Write a Good Call-for-Bids

Freelancers choose whether to offer their services in response to a buyer’s call for bids. The number of freelancers who respond is consequential for the buyer because attracting more bids implies a greater likelihood of finding a suitable freelancer. Here are key principles buyers can use to entice freelancers to bid:

• Moderate length: While buyers may be inclined to supply as much information as possible, successful buyers keep their calls for bids moderately succinct.

• Enough task information: Buyers should focus on providing information about the task and the required skills. Importantly, providing excessive task information is ineffective, even if it might reduce freelancers’ uncertainty. Excessive details can make the gig appear too overwhelming, restrictive, or prescriptive and thus not appealing to freelancers.

• Limit personal information: Buyers may want to provide a lot of personal information in their call for bids. Yet, this research finds that the less buyers describe themselves (and instead focus on describing the task), the more freelancers apply. Extensive personal information provision by buyers is unusual, potentially even inappropriate, in initial online exchanges.

• Enough concreteness: Buyers can vary the concreteness of the gig description. Greater concreteness can be more efficient because freelancers can process the information with less time and effort. Concrete terms help by making information more perceptible, precise, and specific. Only a moderate to high level of concreteness is attractive to freelancers, though. Notably, if buyers are too concrete in their calls for bids, the task might appear narrow, which reduces the gig’s appeal.

• Limit affective intensity: Affective intensity reflects the proportion of emotive terms included in a message. Greater intensity tends to be more persuasive, memorable, and accessible than communication that is unemotional. However, calls for bids are more effective if they are formulated relatively impassively. Overly enthusiastic project descriptions, for example, might raise freelancers’ suspicion that the project is too good to be true.

How Freelancers Can Write Good Bids

Buyers also face uncertainty when deciding whom to hire and how much to pay. By managing these uncertainties through their bids, freelancers can affect their chances of winning bids and their price premiums. Freelancers are not necessarily natural marketers, but here is what they can do in their bid formulations to increase their marketability:

• Stars matter, communication too: Existing online reputation systems provide some assistance, but they also create entry barriers to new freelancers who first must earn good ratings. Fortunately, winning gigs and achieving price premiums also depend on freelancers’ communication.

• Mimicking the buyer: In line with the mantra of adaptive selling, the call for bids provides a starting point, such that mimicking the buyer’s task information and affective intensity increases freelancers’ success—even if the buyer provides few task details or seems very impassive.

• Personal information and concreteness: Freelancers should always offer personal information and be concrete. Even if a buyer does not provide personal information or the call is relatively abstract, freelancers’ chances of success and price premiums increase if their bids contain more personal information and are at least somewhat concrete.

• Build relationships: The strongest predictor of bid success is a preexisting buyer relationship. Thus, freelancers should focus on developing buyer relationships.

This research shows that buyers and freelancers in online freelance marketplaces should carefully manage uncertainty in their communications to improve their chances of achieving success in the gig economy.

Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429211030841

About the Journal of Marketing

The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Christine Moorman (T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University) serves as the current Editor in Chief.
https://www.ama.org/jm

About the American Marketing Association (AMA)

As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what is coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM® professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.
https://www.ama.org

JOURNAL

Journal of Marketing

DOI

10.1177/00222429211030841

ARTICLE TITLE

Communication in the Gig Economy: Buying and Selling in Online Freelance Marketplaces

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Jun-2021

Master’s degrees lead to better employment prospects and higher salaries

Work and study experience are more valuable than top marks

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

New research from HSE University has established the link between obtaining a master’s degree and success in the labour market. The research used a large quantity of data from across Russia. According to the researchers — Ksenia Rozhkova, Sergey Roshchin, Sergey Solntsev, and Pavel Travkin — people with master’s degrees generally have better chances of employment and higher salaries than those with undergraduate degrees only. The results were published in the journal Voprosy Ekonomiki.

What Is It About?

The influence of a master’s-level education on employment success has been confirmed in various countries. For example, those with master’s degrees in the US and the UK earn an average of 5.5–30% more than those with undergraduate degrees. In Japan, this figure rises to 30–40%.

The increase in earnings can vary by gender and subject area. In the UK, men with master’s degrees earn an average of 12% more, while women earn 17% more. Graduates with degrees in the humanities benefit less than those from more sought-after technical and engineering disciplines, while teachers benefit less than administrators and managers. In the US, people with business-related master’s degrees earn 19–23% more, while those with education-related degrees lose out.

The HSE University researchers confirm that the situation in Russia is similar. Gender also has an influence in Russia, as do subject area, changing subject during study, working while studying, region, and type of higher education institution.

How Was It Researched?

The research utilized Russia-wide administrative data collected as part of the Graduate Employment Monitoring project established by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and the Federal Service for Labour and Employment. The database contains information on almost every higher education institution in Russia, particularly about the 2017 graduates of bachelor’s programmes who were the focus of the study. The final sample included around 400,000 people aged 30 and under. Almost 116,000 people from this group enrolled in master’s degrees immediately after obtaining their undergraduate degrees, and went on to graduate in 2019.

Three criteria were measured to assess the quality of the education obtained:

Whether the graduate was awarded a red diploma (signifying honours)

Whether the graduate had combined work with their studies

The type of institution: federal universities, universities created through mergers of other institutions, 5-100 Project members, and universities that do not fall under the other categories.

The researchers also examined social and demographic factors (gender, age, disabilities) and factors related to changing university, region of study, type of university and subject area. The data was analyzed using econometric models, and the results were calculated separately for men and for women.

What Are the Findings?

Successful students are more likely to apply to master’s programmes. Almost one third (30%) of master’s students graduated from their bachelor’s degrees with honours, a number that rises to 45% for master’s graduates. Having an ‘excellent’ academic record has an impact in the labour market, as does having a master’s degree in itself.

Compared to undergraduate degrees, master’s degrees improve employment prospects by an average of 12% for women and 3% for men. Women and men with honours degrees gain a 3% and 4% boost respectively.

‘This disproves the common view that Russian employers only care about work experience and not the quality of candidates’ education,’ conclude the researchers.

People with master’s degrees have higher salaries, although this primarily affects women, who gain an extra 10%. Men gain a more modest 2.5%.

Women experience a greater benefit because a master’s degree is an investment in their career, the researchers explain. It provides access to better workplaces and compensates for the gender pay gap.

Conversely, possession of a red diploma has a negligible or negative effect. The ability to gain work experience is an important factor for master's students, and achieving academic success is too time-consuming to allow for this.

A total of 87% of master’s students combined their studies with work. After graduating, these students had improved chances of employment (10% better for women, 5% for men) and higher salaries (8% for women, 6% for men).

Most applicants to master’s programmes do so to learn more about their field, rather than branch out into a new one. The latter group comprises only 22% according to the research, and this group has greater difficulty finding employment.

Changing subject area at the master’s level reduces the chances of finding employment by 2% in women and 3% in men.

Those with bachelor’s degrees in the natural sciences and humanities are somewhat more likely to join master’s programmes, but the end result is not the same for everyone. People with master’s degrees in economics and management find work 5% faster, while those with agricultural degrees are 2% less likely to find employment.

A master’s-level education has no effect on salaries for workers in culture, art, the humanities and the social sciences. The largest gains were observed in those with specializations in digital technologies and management.

Possession of a master’s degree in mathematics or computer science boosts salaries by 15% for women and 6% for men. Master’s degrees in economics and management provide 20% and 12% gains for women and men respectively.

Graduates’ chosen universities for master’s programmes have an even bigger impact, with national research universities and 5-100 Project members at the forefront. There are 29 research universities in Russia (the researchers studied graduates of 25) and 21 members of the 5-100 Project (of which the researchers examined 20).

Employment prospects for master’s graduates of national research universities and 5-100 project members are improved by 12.5–13.5% for women and 7–8% for men. Salaries benefit from increases of 15–16% and 4–7% respectively.

There are two reasons for these results in special-status higher education institutions. The first is the high demand for such universities among talented candidates. The second is the high quality of education, which ‘translates into reputation among employers.’

Also important are regional factors such as the location of the university and the state of the local job market. For example, 5-100 member universities are largely located in major cities and developed regions, while merged universities are oriented towards economies with lower potential.

Why Is It Important?

This is the first full-scale assessment of the return on master’s degrees in the Russian labour market. The research confirms the advantages of master’s degrees and allows HSE University researchers to disprove a range of existing myths. Master’s students’ increased chances of finding employment cast doubt on the widespread perception that employers ‘have not adapted to the bachelor’s–master’s system’ and do not differentiate between different levels of higher education.

It is also incorrect to view a master’s education as an obligatory continuation of an academic career. Postgraduate education is valuable not just as the next step towards a doctoral degree, but as a stepping stone into working life. As such, master’s programmes must also be designed to impart the required knowledge and skills.

JOURNAL

Voprosy Ekonomiki

DOI

10.32609/0042-8736-2021-8-69-92

ARTICLE TITLE

The return to master’s degree in the Russian labor market

Researchers discover connection between brain’s opioid system and eating behavior

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TURKU

Brain regions — IMAGE: BRAIN REGIONS WHERE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE OPIOID SYSTEM AND EATING TRIGGERED BY EXTERNAL STIMULI WERE DISCOVERED. YELLOW COLOR INDICATES A STRONGER CONNECTION. view more
CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TURKU

Brain regulation of feeding behavior traits has remained incompletely understood. In their latest study, researchers at the Turku PET Centre, Finland, discovered a connection between the function of the opioid system and food craving triggered by appetitive external stimuli.

Animal studies have established that the brain’s opioid and endocannabinoid systems are important in regulating eating behavior and mediate the food reward experience. For instance, alterations in these systems’ signaling have been associated with obesity. In general, both internal signals of the body, such as fluctuation in blood sugar levels, and external stimuli, such as food advertisements, can spark an appetite in humans.

In their new study, researchers at the University of Turku, Finland, investigated the connection between the brain’s opioid and endocannabinoid signaling and different types of eating behavior. They discovered that the function of the opioid system is connected to eating triggered by external stimuli.

“The less binding sites there were for the opioids, the greater was the tendency to eat in response to external stimuli, such as seeing appetizing food. Moreover, the number of binding sites for endocannabinoids was connected to several different types of eating behavior, describes first author,” Doctoral Candidate Tatu Kantonen from the University of Turku.

According to Kantonen, the results indicate that especially the opioid system could be a potential target for anti-obesity drugs in humans.

The research data was obtained from the AIVO database hosted by the Turku PET Centre.

JOURNAL

Translational Psychiatry

DOI

10.1038/s41398-021-01559-5

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Cerebral μ-opioid and CB1 receptor systems have distinct roles in human feeding behavior

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Aug-2021

Icarus can fly high and save on wax too

Risk from solar flares to planes is real but not worth costly mitigation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KYOTO UNIVERSITY

How much of a risk do solar flares pose to airline passengers and staff? — IMAGE: A RECENT STUDY SUGGESTS THAT AIRLINE TRAVEL MAY NOT CARRY AS MUCH RADIATION RISK AS PREVIOUSLY CONJECTURED. view more
CREDIT: NAMI KIMURA/KYOTO UNIVERSITY

Kyoto, Japan -- "Don't fly too close to the sun," said Daedalus to Icarus. Flying too high would melt the wax in his wings, while going too low would cause the sea's moisture to create drag.

Commercial flight crews do not usually appear in Greek mythology, but they have to work with the occupational hazard of aviation radiation exposure.

Aviation guidelines aim to mitigate the effects of radiation, mainly caused by galactic cosmic rays and solar energetic particles, or SEP. The fluxes in the former are stable and predictable: dose rates are no higher than 10 µSv/h at the normal flight altitude of 12 km.

But in the case of SEP, does the frequency of detected solar flares justify the costs of countermeasures? Current mitigation procedures instruct planes to lower altitude or change or cancel flight paths altogether, significantly raising expenses.

A research team led by Kyoto University's Yosuke Yamashiki set out to answer this question by assessing eight flight routes during five ground level enhancements, or GLE: unpredicted radiation spikes recorded by ground-based detectors.

"During a large solar particle event we see sudden SEP fluxes with dose rates exceeding 2 mSv/h," says Yamashiki, "but these are rare and short-lived."

Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers estimate that the maximum flight route dose and dose rate arising from major GLE events would need to exceed 1.0 mSv and 80 µSv/h, respectively, for countermeasures to be deemed necessary.

However, annual frequency estimates of GLE events of that magnitude came to only once every 47 and 17 years for maximum dose and dose rate.

So do the risks justify the costs?

"There is no denying the potentially debilitating effects of radiation exposure," continues Yamashiki, "but the data suggest that current measures may be over-compensating for the actual risks."

###

The paper "Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Solar Particle Events Considering the Cost of Countermeasures to Reduce the Aviation Radiation Dose" appeared 2 September 2021 in the journal Scientific Reports, with doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-95235-9

About Kyoto University

Kyoto University is one of Japan and Asia's premier research institutions, founded in 1897 and responsible for producing numerous Nobel laureates and winners of other prestigious international prizes. A broad curriculum across the arts and sciences at both undergraduate and graduate levels is complemented by numerous research centers, as well as facilities and offices around Japan and the world. For more information please see: http://www.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en

JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-021-95235-9

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Probabilistic Risk Assessment of Solar Particle Events Considering the Cost of Countermeasures to Reduce the Aviation Radiation Dose

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Sep-2021

Anatomy of the impact of a protostellar jet in the Orion Nebula

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTO DE ASTROFÍSICA DE CANARIAS (IAC)

View of HH204, a Herbig-Haro object in the Orion Nebula — IMAGE: THE LEFT PANEL SHOWS THE ORION NEBULA OBSERVED WITH THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, PICKING OUT THE AREA AROUND HH204. IN THE RIGHT PANEL, WE CAN SEE IN DETAIL THE STRUCTURE OF HH204 AND OF ITS APPARENT COMPANION, HH203. IN THIS PANEL, THE IMAGES BY THE HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE TAKEN DURING 20 YEARS AND ARTIFICIALLY HIGHLIGHTED WITH DIFFERENT COLOURS SHOW THE ADVANCE OF THE JETS OF GAS THROUGH THE ORION NEBULA. CREDIT: GABRIEL PÉREZ DÍAZ, SMM (IAC). view more
CREDIT: CREDIT: GABRIEL PÉREZ DÍAZ, SMM (IAC).

An international team led by researchers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) has uncovered, with an new high degree of detail, the physical and chemical effects of the impact of a protostellar jet in the interior of the Orion Nebula. The study was made using observations with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and 20 years of images with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The observations show evidence of compression and heating produced by the shock front, and the destruction of dust grains, which cause a dramatic increase in the gas phase abundance of the atoms of iron, nickel, and other heavy elements in the Orion Nebula. The results were recently published in The Astrophysical Journal.

VIDEO HH204, a Herbig-Haro object in [VIDEO] | EurekAlert! Science News Releases

The Orion Nebula, one of the known and brightest objects in the night sky, is the nearest region of massive star formation to Earth, and it has a complex and extensive gas structure. Some of the newborn stars within it emit jets of gas at high speed which, when they impact their surroudings, produce shock fronts which compress and heat the nebular gas. These impact zones are bow-shaped, and are called Herbig-Haro objects, after their discoverers, the US astonomer George Herbig, and the Mexican astronomer Guillermo Haro.

These objects have been observed previously in many dark nebulae, where the cold gas is neutral, and its main source of energy is the heat generated by the shock. However, the jets of gas in the Orion Nebula are immersed in a large radiation field produced by the most massive stars in the Trapezium of Orion, situated at the centre of the nebula. Due to this radiation the gas within the shock front and also the gas compressed after it has passed through, is warm and ionized, and this allows us to measure precisely the physical conditions and the chemical composition of the jet.

The research carried out by a team of astronomers in Spain, Mexico and the United States, led by José Eduardo Méndez Delgado, a doctoral student at the IAC and the University of La Laguna (ULL), has uncovered the complex relations between the ionic abundances of the gas and its physical conditions in HH204, one of the most prominent Herbig-Haro objects in the Orion Nebula.

“Our work shows that the in the shock front of HH204 the gas abundances of heavy elements such as iron and nickel are increased by up to 350% compared to the values usually found in the Orion Nebula, and this allows us to determine the proportion of other chemical elements more accurately, which contributes to an improved knowledge of the chemical evolution in the solar neighbourhood”, explains José Eduardo Méndez Delgado, the first author of the article.

“As well as the heavy element enrichment in the gas phase, we have observed a heated post-shock zone which comprises a very small fraction of the gas, and which lets us understand the different layers of the structure of the Herbig-Haro object generated by the impact of the shock front”, says César Esteban, and IAC researcher and a co-author of the article.

“The origin of HH204 appears to be associated with one of the most brilliant and star formation rich zones of the Orion Nebula, the regions called Orion South, although there are many interactions of gas which appear to feed it from several directions”, adds William Henney, a researcher at the Institute of Radioastronomy and Astrophysics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and a co-author of the article.

“Thanks to the images of the Hubble Space Telescope we have shown that HH204 is propagating at an angle of 32º with the plane of the sky, which lets us observe the compression of the gas transversely as we approach the shock front”, points out Karla Arellano Córdova, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, and a co-author of the article.

“We have seen that the impact of these objects can be important when determining the local physical conditions in ionized nebulae. In fact, if we don’t take these effects into account we can make incorrect determinations of the chemical composition of the ionized nebulae, which are fundamental techniques for understanding the chemical evolution of the Universe”, sums up Jorge García Rojas, an IAC researcher and a co-author of the article.

Article: Méndez-Delgado, J. E.; Henney, W. J.; Esteban, C.; García-Rojas, J.; Mesa-Delgado, A. & Arellano-Córdova, K. Z. “Photoionized Herbig-Haro objects in the Orion Nebula through deep high-spectral resolution spectroscopy II: HH204”. The Astrophysical Journal. DOI: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac0cf5#artAbst

- Arxiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.08667

JOURNAL

The Astrophysical Journal

DOI

10.3847/1538-4357/ac0cf5#artAbst

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Photoionized Herbig–Haro Objects in the Orion Nebula through Deep High Spectral Resolution Spectroscopy. II. HH 204

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

31-Aug-2021

Astronomers create the first 3D-printed stellar nurseries

Researchers can now hold stellar nurseries in their hands thanks to 3D printing, revealing features often obscured in traditional renderings and animations

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA CRUZ

Stellar nursery models — IMAGE: THE FIRST 3D-PRINTED STELLAR NURSERIES ARE HIGHLY POLISHED SPHERES ABOUT THE SIZE OF A BASEBALL, IN WHICH SWIRLING CLUMPS AND FILAMENTS REPRESENT STAR-FORMING CLOUDS OF GAS AND DUST. RESEARCHERS CREATED THE MODELS USING DATA FROM SIMULATIONS OF STAR-FORMING CLOUDS AND A SOPHISTICATED 3D PRINTING PROCESS IN WHICH THE FINE-SCALE DENSITIES AND GRADIENTS OF THE TURBULENT CLOUDS ARE EMBEDDED IN A TRANSPARENT RESIN. view more
CREDIT: PHOTO BY SAURABH MHATRE

Astronomers can’t touch the stars they study, but astrophysicist Nia Imara is using 3-dimensional models that fit in the palm of her hand to unravel the structural complexities of stellar nurseries, the vast clouds of gas and dust where star formation occurs.

Imara and her collaborators created the models using data from simulations of star-forming clouds and a sophisticated 3D printing process in which the fine-scale densities and gradients of the turbulent clouds are embedded in a transparent resin. The resulting models—the first 3D-printed stellar nurseries—are highly polished spheres about the size of a baseball (8 centimeters in diameter), in which the star-forming material appears as swirling clumps and filaments.

“We wanted an interactive object to help us visualize those structures where stars form so we can better understand the physical processes,” said Imara, an assistant professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz and first author of a paper describing this novel approach published August 25 in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

An artist as well as an astrophysicist, Imara said the idea is an example of science imitating art. “Years ago, I sketched a portrait of myself touching a star. Later, the idea just clicked. Star formation within molecular clouds is my area of expertise, so why not try to build one?” she said.

She worked with coauthor John Forbes at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics to develop a suite of nine simulations representing different physical conditions within molecular clouds. The collaboration also included coauthor James Weaver at Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, who helped to turn the data from the astronomical simulations into physical objects using high-resolution and photo-realistic multi-material 3D printing.

The results are both visually striking and scientifically illuminating. “Just aesthetically they are really amazing to look at, and then you begin to notice the complex structures that are incredibly difficult to see with the usual techniques for visualizing these simulations,” Forbes said.

For example, sheet-like or pancake-shaped structures are hard to distinguish in two-dimensional slices or projections, because a section through a sheet looks like a filament.

“Within the spheres, you can clearly see a two-dimensional sheet, and inside it are little filaments, and that’s mind boggling from the perspective of someone who is trying to understand what’s going on in these simulations,” Forbes said.

CAPTION

In addition to spheres representing nine different simulations, the researchers also printed half-spheres to reveal the mid-plane data. Lighter material corresponds to regions of higher density, while darker areas represent regions of low density and voids.

CREDIT

Photo by Saurabh Mhatre

The models also reveal structures that are more continuous than they would appear in 2D projections, Imara said. “If you have something winding around through space, you might not realize that two regions are connected by the same structure, so having an interactive object you can rotate in your hand allows us to detect these continuities more easily,” she said.

The nine simulations on which the models are based were designed to investigate the effects of three fundamental physical processes that govern the evolution of molecular clouds: turbulence, gravity, and magnetic fields. By changing different variables, such as the strength of the magnetic fields or how fast the gas is moving, the simulations show how different physical environments affect the morphology of substructures related to star formation.

Stars tend to form in clumps and cores located at the intersection of filaments, where the density of gas and dust becomes high enough for gravity to take over. “We think that the spins of these newborn stars will depend on the structures in which they form—stars in the same filament will ‘know’ about each other’s spins,” Imara said.

CAPTION

Nia Imara is both an astrophysicist and an artist. A portrait of herself touching a star eventually led to the idea of creating physical models of stellar nurseries.

CREDIT

Image courtesy of Nia Imara

With the physical models, it doesn’t take an astrophysicist with expertise in these processes to see the differences between the simulations. “When I looked at 2D projections of the simulation data, it was often challenging to see their subtle differences, whereas with the 3D-printed models, it was obvious,” said Weaver, who has a background in biology and materials science and routinely uses 3D printing to investigate the structural details of a wide range of biological and synthetic materials.

“I’m very interested in exploring the interface between science, art, and education, and I’m passionate about using 3D printing as a tool for the presentation of complex structures and processes in an easily understandable fashion,” Weaver said. “Traditional extrusion-based 3D printing can only produce solid objects with a continuous outer surface, and that’s problematic when trying to depict, gases, clouds, or other diffuse forms. Our approach uses an inkjet-like 3D printing process to deposit tiny individual droplets of opaque resin at precise locations within a surrounding volume of transparent resin to define the cloud's form in exquisite detail.”

He noted that in the future the models could also incorporate additional information through the use of different colors to increase their scientific value. The researchers are also interested in exploring the use of 3D printing to represent observational data from nearby molecular clouds, such as those in the constellation Orion.

The models can also serve as valuable tools for education and public outreach, said Imara, who plans to use them in an astrophysics course she will be teaching this fall.

CAPTION
Nia Imara is both an astrophysicist and an artist
CREDIT
Courtesy of Nia Imara

DOI

10.3847/2041-8213/ac194e

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Touching the Stars: Using High-resolution 3D Printing to Visualize Stellar Nurseries

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Aug-2021