Nathan G Johnson

Nathan G Johnson

Virtual Reality Applications Center
2274 Howe Hall, Room 1620
Ames, Iowa 50011-2274

515-294-5311
e-mail: atlas@iastate.edu

Vita

Advisor: Dr. Kenneth "Mark" Bryden (webpage, email)

I am a doctoral student at Iowa State University and completing degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Economics, and Sociology. For the past four years I have been researching appropriate technology to assist people in developing nations in gaining better access to energy, and have also spent time developing methods of data analysis and information extraction from complex and dynamic systems.

Past Education

	Iowa State University, M.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2005



	Iowa State University, B.S., Mechanical Engineering, 2004

Current Education

	Iowa State University, Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering



	Iowa State University, M.S., Interdisciplinary Graduate Studies

Publications

	N.G. Johnson, K.M. Bryden and A. Xiao (2005). "Risk Analysis and Safety Evaluation of Biomass Cookstoves," Proceedings of the 2005 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition. Orlando, Florida. (view)



	N.G. Johnson (2005). "Risk Analysis and Safety Evaluation of Household Stoves in Developing Nations," Masters Thesis, Iowa State University. (view)



	N.G. Johnson, B. Karthikeyan, K. M. Bryden and D. Ashlock. "Voronoi Tessellations and Surface Fitting in Image Analysis and Data Mining," working paper.



	N.G. Johnson. "Cooperative Games for Micro-Enterprises and Consumers," working paper.



	N.G. Johnson. "Actors and Strategies of Sustainable Engineering in Developing Nations," working paper.

Appropriate Technology for Developing Nations

Basic needs and health concerns in developing nations can be addressed through the introduction of appropriate technologies. These technologies are created with significant consideration of local needs and capabilities, project sustainability, and socio-economic influences that may assist or impede implementation.

Research Areas
	Household cooking stoves (Honduras)


	Micro-hydro electricity generation (Mali)


	Water purification and solar energy


	Socio-economic influences and actors

~ Cookstove Safety Files ~

Complex and Dynamic Systems

Complex and dynamic systems are those that change with time and are not discretely reducible to a single set of equations but rather must be defined by evolutionary or stochastic computational models. Physical examples of these systems include ecosystems, power grids, immune systems, and weather. Computational models of physical systems can be created to analyze their patterns and processes or may instead be created to model abstract data content, flow, and distribution for attaining greater understanding of the underlying process.

Research Areas
	Sensor data pattern recognition and deviance for prediction of part breakdown and malfunction


	Image data segmentation and analysis using Voronoi tessellations and surface fitting


	Application of Kolmogorov complexity theories in data compression and process analysis

Last updated: Feb, 3 2006