CONN CTIONS DEPARTMENT of ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING A
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CONN CTIONS DEPARTMENT of ELECTRICAL & COMPUTER ENGINEERING A. JAMES CLARK SCHOOL of ENGINEERING Embedded Systems FACULTY RECIEVE FIVE NEW MAJOR AWARDS DISTINGUISHED & The ALUMNI Internet of Things COVID-19 PREVENTION ROBOTS DIAMONDS SHINE A LIGHT ON 2020-2021 | Vol. 26 No. 1 HIDDEN CURRENTS IN GRAPHENE A. JAMES CLARK SCHOOL of ENGINEERING GLENN L. MARTIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 3 CONTENT 2020-2021 | Vol. 26 No. 1 04 PROGRAM HIGHLIGHT ECE Faculty Respond to COVID-19 06 FEATURE STORY ECE Expands Research and Programs in Embedded Systems & IoT 10 THE 2019-2020 GRADUATING CLASS Over 200 ECE Students Graduated in 2019/2020 11 STUDENT NEWS Student Awards, Honors, and Competition News 14 QUANTUM RESEARCH NEWS Researchers Noninvasively Probe an Integrated Circuit 18 RESEARCH NEWS New U.S. Patent: Integrated Onboard Chargers for Plug-In Vehicles 20 FACULTY NEWS Faculty Awards, Honors, and Promotions 28 ALUMNI NEWS Alumni Awards and Honors 34 CLARK SCHOOL SPOTLIGHT Pines Named 34th President of the University of Maryland, College Park 35 CORPORATE PARTNER SPOTLIGHT ECE Highlights Long-standing Partnership with Leidos 5 20 25 7 28 2 CONNECTIONS FALL 2017 12 34 mEssage from the chair Welcome to the 2020 edition of Connections, the annual The center has grown and includes nine fellows and a handful publication for the Electrical and Computer Engineering of researchers. Department (ECE) of the A. James Clark School of Engineering. I have been at UMD almost 40 years, and this has been one of We are also happy to announce that Professor Babis the most challenging years yet. During these unprecedented Papamanthou has been named Director of the Maryland times, we reflect on the strength of our students, faculty, Cybersecurity Center, one of the nation’s preeminent staff, and alumni who have continued their research, teaching, centers dedicated to cybersecurity research and education. and work throughout the coronavirus pandemic. We have Papamanthou will provide leadership to the unique center that prepared hybrid instruction modes for this Fall based on the engages computer scientists and engineers with researchers guidelines by the University and the State of Maryland. We are from across campus. also holding all events virtually, to keep our students, staff, and faculty safe and still remain engaged with many opportunities Our ECE faculty members have won many prestigious awards to stay connected. We are doing everything we can to offer this year and have published numerous articles in a number of a world-class curriculum and an enriching student experience highly regarded journals. To name a few: Professors Ray Liu despite these challenging times. Though these times have and Min Wu have become members of the National Academy proven difficult, we have been focused on promoting an of Inventors; Professor Mohammad Hafezi received the Simons inclusive environment and we are excited to welcome students, Investigator award and was named a finalist for the second faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds for the 2020-2021 year for the prestigious Blavatnik National Awards for Young academic year. We strive to promote equal opportunities for all. Scientists; Professor Cheng Gong received the Young Scientist Award from the Commission on Semiconductors (C8) of the For this issue of Connections, we are pleased to highlight ECE’s International Union of Pure and Applied Physics; Professor strides in Embedded Systems and Internet of Things (IoT). Dinesh Manocha has been named a Distinguished University With the rapid pace of growth in IoT products and applications, Professor of the University of Maryland and he has also received there is a pressing need for engineers with skills in hardware and the Bézier Award from the Solid Modeling Association; Thomas software design. To address this demand, we have created a Murphy was named a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher by UMD. Bachelor of Science in Embedded Systems and IoT Degree that Our strides in research have been published in the journals of is offered at the Universities at Shady Grove. The first cohort Nature, Physical Review X, Research, and Applied, Nano Letters, of students have begun their rigorous studies this Fall. You will and many more. read about ECE Faculty who are involved in this field including our newest faculty member, Sahil Shah, who will begin as an We are pursuing major new initiatives to enhance our assistant professor in the Spring. Shah’s research focuses on undergraduate lab facilities, attract more students from the intersection of circuits and systems, neural-engineering and underrepresented groups, improve our retention and embedded machine learning. graduation rates, and offer more fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students. The time, expertise, and financial We are proud to offer current and dynamic opportunities for support of our alumni, whether personal or through industry undergraduate and graduate students alike. The Masters of sponsorship, are crucial to the success of our programs. It is my Professional Studies in Machine Learning and the Academy of sincerest hope that you will take the opportunity to help ECE in Machine Learning offer unique and exciting opportunities for whatever way is most purposeful to you. To learn more about students to specialize in, and we have seen great interest and our department or to discuss any of the subjects outlined in enrollment in both programs. Connections, please contact Amanda Stein, Director of External Relations, at [email protected]. Since its founding in 2019 by the Clark School, the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, and the Thank you. CCDC Army Research Laboratory, The Quantum Technology Center (QTC) has been working diligently to create real- world applications for quantum technology and train the next generation of quantum leaders. This includes applications that can turn into startup companies, solutions within industry, or PROFESSOR AND INTERIM CHAIR major advancements for Department of Defense technologies. CONNECTIONS is published once a year for alumni and friends of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the A. James Clark School of Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park. Your alumni news and comments are welcome. Please send them to: Kara Stamets, Marketing Communications Coordinator in ECE, 2455 A.V. Williams Building, College Park, MD, 20742 or [email protected]. Visit our website at: www.ece.umd.edu PUBLISHER EDITORIAL & DESIGN STAFF CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Dr. Joseph F. JaJa Kara Stamets Melissa Andreychek, Rebecca Copeland, Maggie Haslam, Interim Department Chair Marketing Communications Coordinator Darcy Long, and Kara Stamets Amanda Stein Kara Stamets, Lara Zielin PHOTOGRAPHY Director of External Relations Editors John Consoli, Stephanie Cordle, Greg Fiume, Lee Gillenwater, Mike Morgan, Al Santos, and Kara Stamets A. JAMES CLARK SCHOOL of ENGINEERING GLENN L. MARTIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 3 program HIGHLIGHT ECE Responds to COVID-19 NOVEL COVID-19 PREVENTION ROBOTS Social distancing measures (maintaining six feet of pedestrian movements and space between individuals outside of the home) detect whether they are can slow down the COVID-19 outbreak, reduce the maintaining social distances. chance of infection among high-risk populations, CPR will also combine prior and minimize the strain on the health care system. work in social psychology The need to enforce social distancing is higher and behavior modeling to in densely populated areas, and some cities are develop new methods to considering the use of drones to monitor pedestrians influence the behaviors of in large open spaces. pedestrians using robots, in terms of social distances. To address the need for social distancing enforcement, GAMMA Group Members of the The development of AI-based University of Maryland, led by Professors Dinesh technologies for real-time Manocha (ECE/CS/UMIACS/ISR/Robotics) and monitoring of individuals Aniket Bera (UMIACS/CS/Robotics), are developing across diverse environments novel COVID-19 Prevention Robots (CPR) using can have a significant impact mobile robots and commodity sensors. The NSF on surveillance, mental health, and human-robot EAGER project intends to monitor pedestrian interaction. CPRs could provide more accurate movements, using cameras and other sensors, that monitoring technologies due to less sensitivity to will automatically check for vital signs to gather reactance. This research has the potential to benefit reliable data, and investigate techniques to influence society monitoring systems to detect anomalous the behaviors of pedestrians to change their social individuals in public settings, especially to minimize behavior using robots. CPR will automatically monitor the spread of COVID-19 cases. ■ EPITAXIAL GRAPHENE-BASED BIOSENSOR PROVIDES RAPID DETECTION OF COVID-19 Assistant Professor Kevin Daniels (ECE/IREAP) and his colleagues have developed an epitaxial graphene based biosensor that provides rapid detection of COVID-19. The researchers use epitaxial graphene, a single to a few The biosensor, created by Daniels, Dr. Soaram Kim of the layers of carbon atoms with incredibly high surface area, Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics high electronic conductivity, and carrier mobility resulting (IREAP), Dr. Heeju Ryu of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer in ultimate sensitivity for biological sensors. SARS-CoV-2 Research Center, Dr. Seo Hyun Kim of the University of spike protein antibody and antigen allows high selectivity Georgia,