Soft skills in the engineering profession have been a well-known topic for many years because of the idea that engineers lack these skills. Working engineers and hiring managers are looking for engineers who differ from this idea of engineers who lack soft skills to engineers with great "soft skills" on top of their hard, or technical, skills. However, some engineers are reluctant to give up their technical world for a more social way of doing things. While there have been numerous studies to remedy this problem, simply identifying the need for engineers to gain more soft skills has mot been effective thus far. This paper reviews the current literature behind the terms and use of "soft skills" and "entrepreneurial skills" as well as attributes of engineers' success. In this research, "soft skills" and "entrepreneurial skills" are applied to an assessment of adults through a survey, and analytical conclusions are drawn to understand peoples' opinions on the two terms.

There has been an ever-increasing need for soft, functional materials within areas of research such as soft robotics, flexible electronics, and wearable devices. These materials must be stretchable and/or flexible, thermally and electrically conductive, and robustly adhesive to a wide variety of substrates and surfaces. Over the past several decades, soft composites consisting of functional solid particles within an elastic matrix have been developed with the aim of achieving these properties. However, solid particulate fillers in elastomeric materials have various limitations which hinders the ability to achieve the aforementioned properties simultaneously. In this work, two novel approaches to developing soft conductive adhesives are introduced in an effort to solve mechanical, thermal, electrical, and adhesive trade-offs. The composites developed herein utilize liquid metal (LM) inclusions and a combination of LM with solid silver (Ag) flakes within deformable polymer matrices to maintain mechanical compliance while also achieving thermal and electrical functionality. Furthermore, adhesive properties of LM composites are enhanced through a chemical anchoring technique, while the composition and microstructure of LM-Ag composites are designed to control functional and adhesive properties. There are several demonstrations throughout which show the ability to robustly integrate the novel soft composites with rigid materials and electronic components for the creation of resilient and functional hybrid electronic systems. / Master of Science / There has been an ever-increasing need for soft, functional materials within areas of research such as soft robotics, flexible electronics, and wearable devices. These materials must be stretchable and/or flexible, thermally and electrically conductive, and robustly adhesive to a wide variety of substrates and surfaces. Over the past several decades, soft composites consisting of functional solid particles within an elastic matrix have been developed with the aim of achieving these properties. However, solid particulate fillers in elastomeric materials have various limitations which hinders the ability to achieve the aforementioned properties simultaneously. In this work, two novel approaches to developing soft conductive adhesives are introduced in an effort to solve mechanical, thermal, electrical, and adhesive trade-offs. The composites developed herein utilize liquid metal (LM) inclusions and a combination of LM with solid silver (Ag) flakes within deformable polymer matrices to maintain mechanical compliance while also achieving thermal and electrical functionality. Furthermore, adhesive properties of LM composites are enhanced through a chemical anchoring technique, while the composition and microstructure of LM-Ag composites are designed to control functional and adhesive properties. There are several demonstrations throughout which show the ability to robustly integrate the novel soft composites with rigid materials and electronic components for the creation of resilient and functional hybrid electronic systems. Fabrication and Characterization of Multifunctional Soft Composites for Hybrid Electronic Systems Tyler A. Pozarycki (GENERAL AUDIENCE ABSTRACT) Composites are materials which are made up of two or more components with characteristics that exceed their counterparts. Steel reinforced concrete is a common example, where the steel helps to reinforce the concrete while the concrete itself gives shape to the structure. One cannot exist without the other, as the steel alone would create a meaningless skeleton and the concrete alone would not be able to withstand weights of heavier objects such as vehicles. In recent years, soft composites have become an emerging paradigm. These materials are stretchable and flexible due to their main component typically being an elastomer, while their inner component can consist of various materials that give desired functionality. For example, iron particles can grant magnetic properties and carbon can allow the material to conduct heat and/or electricity. As a result, these materials have captured the interest of scientists and researchers in various fields such as robotics, electronics, and biomedicine. However, there exists a unique challenge in developing such a material for applications in these areas. That is, the material needs to possess three critical properties simultaneously: 1) it must be compliant to various surfaces, meaning it must assume complex shapes such as those found on the human body, 2) it must be able to efficiently conduct electricity and heat, and 3) it must be able to adhere, or stick strongly to a variety of surfaces and materials for assembly. Typically, solving this problem has been attempted by fabricating soft composites with inner components consisting of metallic and ceramic particles, powders, or flakes. However, the use of these materials within elastomers, gels, and the like often create a composite which falls short of the aforementioned requirements, as the rigid inner structure and soft outer material are uncomplimentary to each other. Additionally, silicone elastomers and other similar materials typically do not adhere to a wide variety of surfaces, which further complicates the problem. In this work, two novel materials are produced in an effort to solve these long-standing issues. The first utilizes room-temperature liquid metal (LM) as the inner component to preserve overall material integrity while also using a chemical anchoring process to adhere the composites to several plastics and metals. The second consists of a flexible epoxy (naturally adhesive material) which incorporates both LM and silver flakes to create an as-prepared thermally and electrically conductive adhesive. Both soft composites are shown integrated with rigid electronic components and other materials to demonstrate the feasibility of using the composites to fabricate hybrid electronic systems.

Soft materials and compliant structures often undergo significant deformation without failure, a unique feature making them distinct from classical rigid materials. These substantial deformations provide a means for faster or more energy efficient deformations, which can be achieved by taking advantage of elastic instabilities. We intend to utilize structural instabilities to generate advanced functionality within soft materials. In particular, we use the buckling of thin, flexible plates to control or enhance the flow of fluid in a micro channel. The buckling deformation is created or altered via two different stimuli, first a mechanical strain and then an electrical signal. We investigate the behavior of each system under different conditions experimentally, numerically, or theoretically. We also show that the coupled interaction between fluid and the soft film plays a critical role in the shape of deformation and consequently in the functionality of the mechanism. We first embed a buckled thin film in a fluid channel within a soft device. By applying a mechanical strain to the device, we show both experimentally and numerically that the height of the buckled film changes accordingly as does the flow rate. We then offer an analytical solution by extending the classical lubrication theory to higher-order terms as a means to more accurately describe the flow in a channel with a buckled thin film, and in general, the flow in channels with any constrictions provided the Reynolds number is low. Next, we use an electrical signal to make a confined dielectric film undergo out-of-plane buckling deformation. The thin film is sandwiched between two flexible electrodes and the mechanism is implemented in a microfluidic device to pump the fluid into a micro channel. We show that the critical buckling voltage at which the thin film buckles out of the plane is mainly a function of voltage while the shape of deformation and so the functionality of this mechanism depend considerably on the applied boundary conditions. Finally, we enhance the fluid-soft structure response of the actuating mechanism by substituting flexible electrodes with fluid electrodes, resulting in a significant increase in the actuation frequency as well as a reduction in the critical buckling voltage. / Ph. D.

The soft robotics field is developing rapidly and is poised to have a wide impact in a variety of applications. Soft robots have intrinsic compliance, offering a number of benefits as compared to traditional rigid robots. Compliance can provide compatibility with biological systems such as the human body and can provide some benefits for human safety and control. Further research into soft robots can be advanced by further development of pneumatic actuators. Pneumatic actuators are a good fit for exoskeleton robots because of their light weight, small size, and flexible materials. This is because a wearable robot should be human friendly, therefore, it should be light weight, slim, powerful, and simple. In this paper, a novel pneumatic artificial muscle using soft materials including integrated electronics for wearable exoskeletons is proposed. We describe the design, fabrication, and evaluation of the actuator, as well as the manufacturing process used to create it. Compared to traditional pneumatic muscle actuators such as the McKibben actuator and new soft actuators that were recently proposed, the novel actuator overcomes shortcomings of prior work. This is due to the actuator's very high contraction ratio that can be controlled by the manufacturing process. In this paper, we describe the design, fabrication, and evaluation of a novel pneumatic actuator that can accommodate integrated electronics for displacement and pressure measurements used for data analysis and control. The desired performance characteristics for the actuator were 100 ~ 400N at between 35kPa and 105kPa, and upon testing we found almost 120 ~ 300N which confirms that these actuators may be suitable in soft exoskeleton applications with power requirements comparable to rigid exoskeletons. Furthermore, a novel soft pneumatic elbow exoskeleton based on the pneumatic actuator concept and manufacturing process is presented. Each structure is designed and manufactured with all fabric. The distally-worn structure is only 300g, which is light weight for an arm exoskeleton, and the design is simple, leading to a low materials cost. / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Pathology / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

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