Report Was Produced with Funds from the Harry Lynde Bradley Foundation

The Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering This report was produced with funds from the Harry Lynde Bradley Foundation.

Cover photos by John McCormick

Cover: Virginia Tech’s RapidRadio framework can help a user build an FPGA radio in a short time, based on a set of characteristics extracted from an unknown signal. Researchers in the Configurable Computing Laboratory are building an Internet- controllable robot to impair the wireless channel for testing.

Produced by Uncork-it Communications WHAT’S INSIDE 4 Lessons You Can’t Find in a Book COMPETITIONS 6 More Light... 8 Taking the Competition Under Water 10 From the Ground Up 12 Minding the Gaps

13 Interdisciplinary Design 16 Promising Power 18 An Arctic Blast FEATURES 20 The New Solar 22 Life Beyond Silicon

24 Electronics 25 Controls 26 Power & Energy RESEARCH 28 Biomedical Applications 30 Electromagnetics 32 Communications 34 Networking 35 Computer Systems 36 Embedded Systems 38 SoftwareI/Design Automation

2 From the Department Head 39 Ph.D. Degrees Awarded ECE PEOPLE 40 Bradley Fellows & Scholars 44 Donors to ECE 45 Corporate/Industrial Affiliates 46 Honors & Achievements 48 ECE Faculty

Photography: Robert Dunay: p. 11; Kelsey Kradel: pp. 13, 21; John McCormick: pp. 2, 35, 36; Dave Franusich: p. 24, 25; Christina O’Connor: pp. 1, 4-12, 17, 20, 21, 23, 25; Jim Stroup: p. 8, 10, 22, 23 PERSPECTIVES from the Department Head

is my great honor to now serve as department head of In the domain of critical infrastructures, the the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer 2 department is making contributions in many areas, including Engineering and to provide this introduction to our power and energy systems, telecommunications and networking IT2010 annual report. This report summarizes the many infrastructure, sensors and embedded systems for structural health notable accomplishments of our students and faculty. Perhaps more monitoring, and rail transportation. importantly, it provides a glimpse into just a few of the innovations The domain of healthcare and biotechnology in research, education, and outreach that reflect the great poten- 3 is clearly important as our population ages and healthcare tial of the department. It is this potential, the opportunity, and the dominates political discourse. ECE researchers, often in collabo- challenges that we face that make my job exciting. ration with researchers in other disciplines, are making important I look forward to serving the 70-plus faculty members, the advances in medical imaging, synthetic biology, bio-MEMS, and approximately 1200 undergraduate and graduate computing infrastructure and methods that can students, and the thousands of alumni and friends help to solve challenges such as engineering better of the department as we strive for even higher medicines or reverse engineering of the brain. quality, even more significant impact, and even The fourth general domain is greater innovation. 4 safety and security, with includes the While increased national rankings, research grand challenge of securing cyberspace. ECE fac- funding, and SAT and GRE scores for our ap- ulty and students are creating innovative hardware plicants are important and necessary goals, we for the secure implementation of cryptographic are driven by more pressing and more important algorithms, methods for locating wireless attack- challenges. I assert that electrical and computer ers, and programs for educating the next genera- engineering has never been more important than tion of engineers and scientist for the intelligence it is right now for both economic vitality and community. societal good. The National Academy of Engi- We are striving to both transform and to be neering formed a committee to identify Grand 5 transformed by innovations in edu- Challenges for Engineering for the 21st Century. cation, research, and collaboration, If you are not familiar with this list of 14 Engi- Scott Midkiff the fifth domain of the grand challenges. ECE neering Grand Challenges, I urge you to visit the Department Head technological developments promise to dramati- informative web site at www.engineeringchallenges. cally increase the performance and efficiency of org. While one may argue that the list is incomplete or that there cyberinfrastructure, which are the tools for scientific discovery, and are other challenges that are more “grand,” the list does illustrate advance personalized learning through the use of the Tablet PC and the important and difficult challenges facing the world that require other educational technologies. technically innovative solutions. Finding solutions to the grand The challenge and the opportunity for the Bradley Depart- challenges will require the expertise of multidisciplinary teams of ment of Electrical and Computer Engineering is to make the funda- engineers, scientists, and policy makers. But, to varying degrees, mental discoveries, develop the transformational innovations, and the talents and contributions of electrical and computer engineers ensure the well prepared future ECE workforce necessary to meet are essential to new breakthroughs to solve these grand challenges. the Grand Challenges of Engineering and find solutions to other important problems to help ensure the prosperity of the nation and I categorize the 14 Grand Challenges into five general domains: a sustainable future for the world. The future of engineering is clearly multidisciplinary. ECE The domain of energy and the environment is researchers are already working across disciplinary boundaries. 1 vital to a sustainable future. Virginia Tech’s ECE department Engineering will rely more and more on cyber systems, including has world-class expertise in power electronics, power systems, and high performance computing that is enabling new approaches to sensors for harsh environments that are necessary to solve challeng- discovery and innovation, plus embedded systems that underlie new es such as making solar energy economical. cyber-enabled engineered systems such as the smart grid and cogni-

2 The National Academy of Engineering’s Committee on Engineering’s Grand Challenges developed the following list NEW FACULTY of 14 key areas needing engineering solutions. Mantu Hudait 1 Make solar energy economical Mantu Hudait 2 Provide energy from fusion joined ECE in 3 Provide access to clean water September as an 4 Reverse-engineer the brain associate profes- 5 Advance personalized learning sor in the micro- 6 Develop carbon sequestration methods electronics area. 7 Engineer the tools of scientific discovery An expert in materials science 8 Restore and improve urban infrastructure and microelectronics, Hudait is investigating new materials and 9 Advance health informatics device structures for energy-effi- Prevent nuclear terror 10 cient nanoelectronics and alterna- 11 Engineer better medicines tive energy sources. He came to 12 Enhance virtual reality Virginia Tech after serving four 13 Manage the nitrogen cycle years as a senior process engi- 14 Secure cyberspace neer in the Advanced Transistor Source: www.engineeringchallenges.org and Nanotechnology Group at Intel Corporation. Hudait received his tive wireless networks. our alumni and friends. The department is espe- Ph.D. in materials science and en- In the future, the nation will need more cially appreciative of our ECE Advisory Board, gineering from the Indian Institute electrical and computer engineers with more ad- chaired by Gino Manzo, and the advisory boards of Science in 1999, and a mas- vanced preparation, and exhibiting greater diver- for research groups and centers. The department ter’s degree in materials science sity. We must expand the ECE student pipeline is indebted to James Thorp, our previous depart- and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1992. from K-12 to college and from the undergraduate ment head, who left the ECE department both to the graduate level. To introduce undergradu- intellectually strong and fiscally sound. I am espe- ates to advanced study, we offer undergraduate cially grateful to Jim for the wisdom and knowl- Paolo Mattavelli research experiences across the department, in- edge that he shared so generously before and after Paolo Mattavelli cluding an NSF-funded REU site in wireless. We I became department head. I wish to thank the joined ECE in Janu- seek to engage even more of our best undergradu- ECE faculty and staff, who do so much for the de- ary as a professor ates in research. And, we strive to better prepare partment, and Dean Benson and the the College in the electronics our students to work in global, multidisciplinary team. All have been very helpful to me as I learn area. Mattavelli will be working with teams and to creatively integrate knowledge to the ropes of the new job. And last, but certainly the Center for Power Electronics solve problems through “hand-on, minds-on” not least, I thank my wife, Sofia, and my children, Systems (CPES). Mattavelli comes learning. Victoria and Erik, for their support in the move to ECE from the University of This annual report shows that ECE faculty back to Blacksburg and for their understanding of Padova in Vicenza, Italy, where he and students are working very hard to seize the the demands associated with my position. served as an associate professor opportunities before us. It is also clear that more We welcome two new members to our fac- of electronics since 2005. He has must be done. This is our challenge. Despite de- ulty, Mantu Hudait in microelectronics and Paolo coordinated a number of research clining state support for higher education, we are Mattavelli in power electronics. Mantu and Paolo and industrial projects in power not standing still. More and more, we control our are introduced at right. electronics, and received the Prize own destiny. We are establishing creative partner- In closing, I note the passing of William A. Paper Award in IEEE Transactions ships with industry, government, and others in Blackwell on March 12, 2010. Bill was depart- on Power Electronics in both 2005 academia, as well as with our alumni and friends, ment head from 1966 to 1981, during which time and 2006. Mattavelli received his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees to find the resources to move forward. And, we he led the transformation of the department into in electrical engineering from the are using these resources efficiently to realize its modern form as an international leader in ECE University of Padova in 1995 and quality, impact, and innovation. We must, and we education and research. Bill’s life of service to the 1992, respectively. He has served will, lead the way in ECE research, education, and department, the profession, and the nation exem- as an associate editor for IEEE outreach. plifiesUt Prosim and serves as a model for us all. Transactions on Power Electronics I would like to thank our many partners in since 2003, and is the IPCC Paper this pursuit — the Bradley Endowment, our in- Review Chair for IEEE Transactions dustry supporters, our sponsors, and, especially, on Industry Applications.

3 COMPETITIONS

student zooms around the track in a hybrid car designed by a team of her peers. She steps out and removes her helmet as a crowd cheers and her teammates surround her. Great, right? But how LESSONS much do these high-profile design competitions actually help students? It’s difficult to find hard data on the impact of competitions on engineering education, but easy to find advocates among students, profes- YOU CAN'T sors, and employers. ECE’s Dan Stilwell, who co-advises the auton- Aomous underwater vehicle team sums up the advocates’ position: “The undergraduate student competition teams are among the best educational experiences we can offer. I’m a huge fan.” FIND IN A Engineering competitions are fun: they motivate students through hands-on, real-world experiences. Students come away with renewed passion and enthusiasm for their coursework. Some students might even sign up for a discipline because of the competitions offered in the curriculum. BOOK Employers love to see that a student has practical experience working with a budget, a timetable, and a group of other engineers — or even marketing or art students. Some competitions have even Competitions build led to major technological innovations. Competitions have become an increasingly popular tool for getting students enthusiastic about engineering. Students can better engineers choose from a smorgasbord of vehicle and robotic competitions tai- lored to specific technologies. They can build a hybrid car, a solar- powered car, a fully autonomous car and who knows how many boats, helicopters and other things that move. They can also build robots that play soccer, pick up and sort recyclables, or perform any number of other tasks. Virginia Tech has a dedicated building, the Ware Lab, for student competitions. “Did you know that the Ware Lab has great machining and fiberglass facilities, but these can only be used by students on a competition team?” Stilwell asks. “This is a great rule.

4 The College of Engineering has made specific and useful invest- experience was very useful in his senior-level embedded design ments in the student competition teams.” course. “That class would’ve been a lot more difficult had I not been Many of the senior projects in Virginia Tech’s department of through this competition for two years prior to taking it. I was used COMPETITIONSmechanical engineering are based on competitions. In ECE, com- to working with a group of people and I was comfortable using test petitions are an increasingly important part of students’ experience equipment and the electronics side of things.” at Virginia Tech, with many students receiving course credit for He speculated that without the competition experience, he their work. This year, ECE students have participated in the Solar may not have been a CPE. “I’m not your typical A/B student. I Decathalon, the formula car, the Lunabotics team, the IEEE robot got frustrated and bored with our ‘Intro to Engineering’ courses. contest, and the autonomous underwater vehicle team, among oth- In those courses it could be difficult to see how the things we were ers. Many of these teams first learning would apply to our were sponsored by other de- future work,” he said. “The partments, but as electrical and Competitions have become courses I do find interesting computer engineering technol- an increasingly popular tool are the ones I can relate to the ogy has become critical to al- robotics projects we’ve done, most every field of endeavor, for getting students enthusi- and those are the subjects that the teams are increasingly seek- I really do a great job on. So, ing ECE students to help out. astic about engineering selective effort here and there, During course sign-up week, but maybe I wouldn’t be doing undergraduate email inboxes are filled with announcements of doz- anything without the robotics competitions.” ens of interdisciplinary team opportunities. Although experience with a competition’s particular technology may help students in their coursework and curriculum, they Relationship to coursework unanimously agree that competition experience helps them learn The competition-based learning model has grown with stu- time management, group coordination and leadership, communica- dent claims that it complements and helps motivate their course- tions, and budgeting skills. work with valuable hands-on experience. “One of the biggest challenges we had to overcome was com- Micah Boswell (CPE ’11), captain of the AUVT team, said that municating with the rest of the team and getting everyone in one students think that robotics competitions are “the coolest things place to make decisions,” said Zaremski of the Lumenhaus project, they’ve done.” A lot of topics students encounter in competitions which involved almost 100 students from different disciplines. are covered in class, and a lot aren’t, he noted. “You can only teach Although Green’s team is smaller, he agreed that getting every- so much in class and the competitions give you a chance to explore one together despite pressing course and personal obligations, espe- so many additional aspects.” cially during the semester, was one of his teams’ biggest challenges. The most fun, according to Boswell, was going to the competition. “We met with 29 teams from all over the world. Just seeing Employers love competition experience how those students attacked the same problem was a huge learning Employers love to see experience with competitions on an ap- experience,” he commented. plicant’s résumé. “Sometimes companies float these competitions Graduate student Zack Zaremski, lead ECE on the Lumenhaus to see who the best students are and then hire them later,” said Solar Decathalon team agreed. One of the highlights was seeing all Harpreet Dhillon, a master’s student who recently participated in the other team’s solutions and picking up ideas for the next version, a competition funded by Qualcomm; the first-place prize for this he said. competition included preference for an internship position with Students learn from other teams, but also from older students Qualcomm. on their own team. Kevin Green (CPE ’10), captain of Virginia In a discipline that has been criticized for producing talented Tech’s IEEE hardware team said that, because he was interacting individuals who find it difficult to communicate or work with oth- with older students, he gained hands-on experience with technolo- ers, the collaborative atmosphere of undergraduate engineering gies and techniques that usually aren’t taught to new students. The competitions is a welcome complement to coursework.

5 MORE LIGHT... Team effort conquers low power

ompetitions aren’t just about building and testing systems, said. The team eventually opted for treads, which are a big energy as Kevin Green (CPE ’10), captain of Virginia Tech’s IEEE drain. hardware contest team, and his teammates have learned. For power, the team started with paper thin, inexpensive PV Good management and advance work can be as important panels that crumbled with the slightest pressure. For a team that as overcoming technical challenges and developing work- is always disassembling, reassembling, or transporting their device, Cing hardware and software. these panels were not a viable option. For the 2010 IEEE SoutheastCon hardware contest, teams built The students found sturdier panels, but at a high cost of $500. a photovoltaic-powered vehicle that would navigate With a contribution from defense contractor Artis, they were able an obstacle course without the help of a human con- to purchase and install 160 of the small square solar panels on their troller. To add to the challenge, no batteries were al- vehicle. lowed, only capacitors, and the only power sources A week before competition, the team had the power and lo- were four 250W Halogen work lamps. The vehicles comotion systems operating, as well as working software. This was Get the free app for your phone at http://gettag.mobi could stand still and charge under the lights, but the unusual for a project that typically hasn’t had a working vehicle un- Visit the IEEE Hardware competition was timed to ensure that the vehicles til days or even hours before competition. Green attributed this suc- Team website: were always pressured to move forward and operate cess to a larger team than normal and several decisions made early ieeehardware.ece.vt.edu on very low power. in the process. The autonomous vehicles attempt to go un- After several years of ultra-small teams, this year’s team was der or over a height obstacle, through a width obstacle, and over a 18 strong, including some mechanical engineering students. The ramp. The Virginia Tech team found the ramp especially difficult, students were able to break into several functional groups: hard- because of the vehicle’s low power and the ramp’s slick surface. ware and chassis, and software. Each group had strong team leaders, The team struggled with various options, including a set of which Green said made his job as captain much easier. very sticky wheels, which worked when perfectly clean but con- “This has been really great,” he said. “These guys have been stantly picked up dirt from the artificial turf of the track. “We tried great to work with. They’ve taken over a lot of the work, which wiping down the ramp and cleaning the Astroturf, but no matter lets me focus on the funding, management, and other aspects of the what we do, the wheels collect so much dirt that they slip,” Green contest like paperwork or buying pizza for everybody when they 6 COMPETITIONS “Most of the robots...just sat there without moving. It was a standoff – whoever could move first would win.”

Students on the IEEE hardware team built a solar-powered robot for the 2010 South- eastCon competition. In the group photo on the opposing page: Back row from left: Fitwi Hailegiorgis, Philip Caspers, Kurt Brendley, Abdullah Asiri, Alex Goodman, Jacob Stultz, Nick Dodson, and Alfred Gonzalez. Front: Michael Francis, Kevin Green, Josh Avant, Chris Arnold, and Bobby Bowen.

have to stay late. I don’t know how previous captains did it without some module had shorted and fried one of our power regulators.” this structure.” They were in the first heat and had to forfeit while scrambling for While the hardware team struggled with power and chassis is- a replacement part. sues, the software team was busy developing code and “war gam- Lesson learned: redundancy is critical. ing among themselves.” When the chassis was ready, the software The robot was partially operational for the second heat, when “just kind of worked,” Green said. “In the past, the team found out that the competition power we’d have the chassis built, but zero software. This lights were different from the practice room. time, we had written tons of software.” “Most of the robots – including ours – just sat They have even had time to develop software there without moving. It was a standoff – who- techniques to improve processing of feedback ever could move first would win,” Green said. and system integration. “Now if something goes “Because we were robotic, we could repro- wrong, it’s a lot easier for us to tell whether it was gram our vehicle for the third heat, when other a minor technical glitch or a major problem with teams had to rewire theirs.” Lesson learned: ad- the system,” explained Green. vance preparation was a good thing. So, how did the robot perform at competi- The robot moved for the final heat and gained tion? The team had been very hopeful and when one point. “We were off zero, which put us in the they got to the competition in March, they found middle of the 50 teams, but we were far from plac- they were the only team to use treads and their ing. One team got 30 point and the rest just sat. It vehicle was the most sophisticated looking. “We was a slaughter!” looked like a robot, whereas other teams looked Lesson learned: “It was a good experience. We like a motor with solar panels.” learned a lot about ourselves.” Then, a half hour before competition, disaster struck. “The Back in Blacksburg, the students are repairing and fixing up robot was having electrical problems and we discovered that a wire- the robot as a departmental demonstration unit. The team is spon- less radio module was dead. We had used that module all year to sored each year by Norfolk Southern and was advised this year by debug and send back telemetry information. It turns out this awe- Jaime De La Ree.

7 TAKING THE COMPETITION UNDER WATER

any annual student competitions purposeful- ly make the requirements not just different, but tougher each year — keeping success just beyond reach. With this strategy, organizers hope to both develop top-rate engineers and move the technology forward step by step. The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Competition follows this strategy. One team completed the course in 2009, so the organizers have M th promised it will be more difficult this year, its 13 competition, according to Micah Boswell (CPE ’11), leader of Virginia Tech’s team. The competition, sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the Office of Naval Re- search (ONR), focuses on realistic missions underwater. With vehicles no longer than 6 feet and less than 3 feet high or wide, teams seek to complete a number of underwater tasks. The AUVs must drive through a validation gate, follow an orange path, touch a red buoy, jump over bars, drop markers in bins, fire a tor- pedo, grab a PVC structure and surface in a specified octagon — all Top (from left): in 15 minutes or less. Joe Ball, It’s hard enough to develop a land-based autonomous vehicle Ben Guzzardi, to complete such locomotion with visual and acoustic recognition Richard Stroop, tasks, but the underwater environment adds extra challenges, Bo- and Bryant swell said. “ECEs generally don’t have to operate underwater.” Ferguson. The electronics must be small and dense so the system is the Bottom: same weight as water, which is surprisingly heavy, he noted. The Karli Brittain. team will add weights, if needed, so the AUV can submerge. Pow- ering the system underwater is also tricky, he said. “We decided to use lithium polymer batteries, but they don’t react well when combined with water. We need numerous failsafes so that if the system shorts, the battery is protected and doesn’t blow up the vehicle.” During the July competition in San Diego, the teams will not 8 COMPETITIONS “It’s hard enough to develop a land-based autonomous vehicle... but the underwater environment adds extra challenges.”

Visit the AUVT website: www.auvt.org.vt.edu

Get the free app for your phone at http://gettag.mobi

operate their own AUVs, but will put them in the hands of Navy Once a subsystem works independently, however, it must be divers. This means the operating system must be user-friendly. With integrated into the whole system, which can be a challenge. “We’re that in mind, the ECE students make sure the other students can dealing with more complexity integrating the work of a much larg- understand and operate the vehicle and are continuously improving er group,” explained Boswell. the software so that all of the systems can interact well through a The software is critical to the system integration. Mathworks, simple interface. a sponsor of the Ware lab that This is the second year houses the team, has provided Boswell has participated. In software, including Simulink, 2009, Virginia Tech floated its which the students use for au- first AUV team in several years. tonomous-level code. “We in- “Last year none of us had any tegrate that with our own C++ idea what to expect,” he said. code,” Boswell said. “Simulink “Just the fact that we were able gives us a graphical program- to get an AUV put together and ming interface, which makes score points… I think it’s pretty it easier for those who are not amazing that we were able to do strong programmers to look at that given that we started with the code and understand how no idea of anything.” it works,” he added. “This Virginia Tech’s AUV Last year’s team was six helped us develop the software strong, with three CPE students. This year, with many returning very rapidly.” Last year, the team hadn’t started programming until members, a much larger team, and sponsorship from Lockheed about three weeks before the competition, he said. Martin, the team has dreams of greater success. Although the larger team helps with technology development, Some of the challenges the students face stem from the team’s it makes it more difficult to ensure strong team interactions. Bo- growth. This year’s team has 22 members, with eight ECEs. The swell described a recent underwater test. “It was the first time we team is advised by ECE’s Dan Stilwell and Craig Woolsey of aero- had several different groups at the same event, and it was an inter- space and ocean engineering. esting experience to have groups that have been working on the With the larger team, the students have been able to rebuild, same project for weeks meet each other for the first time. As the modify and add systems for higher value tasks at the competition. team has grown, it has become harder and harder for everyone to One new system is passive sonar. The team had hoped to buy a func- know each other, and a challenging task for the overall coordinator tional system off the shelf, but balked at the almost-$20,000 price. (me) to keep track of everyone’s work,” he said. “I believe this expe- Instead, the team identified a specialized sonar group that is work- rience is invaluable for anyone working on a large team, and should ing with Stilwell’s laboratory to develop a cost-effective system. be an integral part of a good engineering education.”

9 FROM THE GROUNDUP ECEs design and build Lumenhaus PV system

hen a team of ECE students joined and does not fail when power generation spikes or the multidisciplinary team building dips, according to Zaremski. Lumenhaus, Virginia Tech’s entry The solar panels generate more power during in the Solar Decathalon, they faced the day than is needed by the house, which sells an age-old misunderstanding: they that power to the electric company at the high Wwere expected to be electricians. daytime price. At night, the house draws electric- The project is the university’s largest cross- ity from the grid at the much lower night cost. college design competition, involving about 100 “The house can operate anywhere. It’s been a very students from disciplines including architecture, cool project with the sustainable energy compo- marketing, communications, and engineering. nent and backfeeding to the grid,” Zaremski said. “It’s funny; the other students on the team just In addition to energy-efficient appliances, expect us to know everything about electricity,” the house “has a lot of lights, including fluores- “The house can said Zack Zaremski, the lead student on the pow- cent lights in the plenum that are covered by a operate anywhere. er system team. stretched-fabric ceiling.” The team installed a The ECEs happily pitched in and learned user-friendly Lutron interface that can control It’s been a very wiring (one ECE, Damion Logan actually had the lighting through an iPhone application. The worked as an electrician before coming to Tech). system also turns off lights when a room is empty. cool project with But, the ECEs’ main interest was designing and The U.S. Department of Energy competi- the sustainable building the solar power system and connecting tion in fall 2009 in Washington D.C. evaluated it to the grid. the teams in 10 areas; “construction and engineer- energy component Lumenhaus is a pavilion-style home, with ing,” “solar system and hot water,” and “energy and backfeeding to an open plan. The ECE team designed, specified, balance” were the areas involving the ECE team. and built an 8 kW photovoltaic (PV) array that A German team won the competition by the grid.” provides enough power for the energy-efficient covering every available surface with solar panels building’s needs and then some. The PV system and using the maximum overall dimensions al- can operate in almost any level of cloud cover, lowed. The German team won many points for 10 COMPETITIONS Zack Zaremski, Paul Gherardi, Kenny Johnson, Damion Logan, and Justin Reyes are on the ECE team that designed, spec’ed, and built the solar power system for Lumen- haus. Other ECEs who participated: Danny Slover, Roddy DeHart, Richard Gilker, John Shields, and Josh Schaefer. Virgilio Centeno serves as ECE faculty advisor.

generating excess electricity, and the Lumenhaus team is adding PV panels for its entry into the European Solar Decathlon, to be held in June, in Madrid, Spain. The team, however, has reservations about producing too much energy. “Part of the evaluation is on marketability, which includes affordability,” Zaremski said, “You don’t want to generate a whole lot more than you need, because when you’re offsetting your own cost it’s about 12 cents a kilowatt hour. But when you sell it back to the grid, it’s at wholesale price, which is about four cents. So it’s actually cost effective to generate just under or right about what you need.” Other modifications to the power system that are under way include making all of the outlets tamper proof and fixing minor bugs in their code. Zaremski is the only ECE graduate student The fully functioning Lumenhaus as it was installed on involved. The other nine participated as part of the National Mall for the 2009 Solar Decathalon. their senior power design course. “This has been the best internship or design or team experience I’ve had,” he said. Not only do the students learn, but “there’s a lot of pride — not just school pride, Visit the Lumenhaus website: but national pride. We’ll be one of only two U.S. www.solar.arch.vt.edu/about Get the free app for teams competing in Spain.” your phone at http://gettag.mobi

11 hile undergraduate competitions typically highlight contributing a different strength: Jeong O-Jeong acquired the liter- design and teamwork, competitions at the graduate ature, Dhillon developed the algorithm, Dinesh Datla characterized and research level can often be more about ideas. This the noise, and Mike Benonis obtained real signals to create an extra is the case with the spring 2010 Qualcomm Cognitive data set for the team to test its algorithm. Radio Competition, which Qualcomm designed to The students developed a fairly robust solution. They deter- Widentify new ways of detecting wireless microphone systems. Vir- mined a baseline noise correlation matrix from a data set with no ginia Tech was one of only 14 universities invited to participate. wireless microphone signals. To see if a signal is present in a new The challenge stems from the recent switch from analog to environment, they compare the new correlation matrix with the digital TV signals and the FCC allowing cognitive radios to use TV baseline matrix using singular value decomposition. If their algo-

From left: Harpreet Dhillon, faculty advisor Mike Buehrer, Mike Benonis. Seated: Dinesh MINDING Datla, Jeong-O Jeong. THE GAPS Teaching smart radio to sense wireless microphone signals white space. Cognitive radios may not interfere with existing communications and so must identify the signals of licensed users. The cognitive radios must have spectrum-sensing technology capable of detecting and avoiding ATSC and NTSC (digital and analog television signals), as well as wireless microphones. Established techniques exist for sensing ATSC and NTSC, but detecting wireless microphones is more difficult. Wireless microphones can be found anywhere in the spectrum, have very low rithm determines there is a signal, it calculates the center frequency received signal strength and their transmitter format is not well de- from the measured auto correlation of the signal. fined. Moreover, multiple wireless microphones can coexist- any With no deliverables or hardware, the competition did not where in the TV band, explained Harpreet Dhillon, a graduate stu- gather the teams together. The teams were given two data sets: a dent on the team. It was also required to detect the exact frequencies training set and a test set. When they were ready, they used their al- of all the wireless microphones present in the said frequency band. gorithm on the test set, which randomized the wireless microphone “That was the biggest motivation for Qualcomm to float this signals, and sent their results and algorithm to Qualcomm for eval- competition. They wanted to get different ideas, because this prob- uation. They expect to hear the results of the competition in April. lem is not so straightforward to solve. If it was, of course, those “It would have been nice to meet the other students,” Dhillon guys would have solved it already,” he said. said. “When you delve so deeply into an issue, it’s always nice to Dhillon and three other ECE graduate students competed for meet other people and see how they dealt with the challenges. But the $25,000 first prize. Michael Buehrer served as faculty advisor. in this case, people don’t always want to share their results. They Dhillon had participated in design competitions as an under- may want to get IP or publish.” graduate and found some differences in the experience. “Team Although different from his undergraduate experiences, Dhil- spirit was absent in the initial phases of our efforts, because we are lon enjoyed the contest. “We had a good team and we appreciated graduate students used to working independently on our own re- how each person could contribute different skills,” he said. He also search. However, as our work progressed, we developed a unique enjoyed a competition so related to his research. “In school, we spirit and sense of responsibility,” he recalled. develop the strong fundamental concepts. This was an eye-opener The team came together serendipitously, with each member that helped me see the industrial applications of our work.” 12 COMPETITIONS INTERDISCIPLINARY

DESIGNEclectic projects boost ECEs’ adaptability

n a single day, Tom Martin, an associate pro- The team developed a set of products relat- fessor of ECE, might be involved with a lap- ed to pet care. “Studies show that the elderly do top orchestra, a fashion show curtain, and an better with pets around, but they are at a time in intelligent jump suit. In all these efforts, he’s life when caring for pets may be more difficult,” engaging undergraduate ECE students in a Martin says. The students developed the Pet Care Iworld far from engineering. Awareness System (PAwS) that would help the el- “The most interesting ideas come alive at the derly remember tasks and assist with some rou- margins between disciplines,” he says — and as a tine aspects. pervasive computing expert, much of his work is In the end, P&G did not name a winner from at those margins. the four teams, but Vir- Pervasive computing involves integrating in- ginia Tech did well, Mar- telligent or “smart” functions into everyday ob- tin recalls. “We had people jects and activities. He believes that for ECEs to crying at one point during be successful in pervasive computing, they must a video the students made break through the cultural mindset of engineer- showing the elderly with ing and understand how professionals in business, their pets. People were design, and other fields operate. At the same time, wiping their eyes.” students in other disciplines must be exposed to The P&G team in- the engineering processes. volved 12 students from To encourage such cultural breakthroughs, five departments, includ- he has a long-standing collaboration with faculty ing ECE, industrial and members across the university, from marketing, systems engineering, mar- industrial design, and engineering education, to keting, industrial design, music and architecture. Each year, he is involved and art. A faculty advisor in at least one interdisciplinary design project from each department and with industrial design and marketing, plus addi- an advisor from the vet- tional ad hoc teams. erinary school served as The faculty collaborations with industrial mentors. design and marketing first came together on a Working with others from such diverse Tom Martin advises a variety project in 2006 for a student design contest spon- backgrounds requires bridging cultures, Martin of interdisciplinary student sored by Procter & Gamble (P&G). In 10 weeks, says. “We take these students from different dis- design projects. One lesson the students were tasked with designing an intel- ciplines and they use the same words, but they students learn: how design ligent product that P&G could sell to elderly cus- don’t understand what each other is saying. It’s differs across disciplines. tomers. The Virginia Tech team was one of four like moving to a different country and learning a selected by the firm out of 50 submissions. new language.” (continued on next page)

13 (continued from previous page) He and Edward Dorsa and Ronald Kemnitzer of industrial uses the iPod as an analogy for the situation.There were MP3 design decided to coordinate another design project the following players before the iPod, and one could argue that they looked cool. year, involving just computer engineers and industrial design stu- The real kicker in the iPod success wasn’t the technology, but the dents. “We thought that perhaps the P&G experience had too many business model. Apple’s iTunes store, which enabled people to buy different types of students and too many cultural gaps to bridge,” a song for 99¢ is a major part of what made the iPod successful, he Martin explains. maintains. The project was part of a special studies course in which 11 For the 2008 project, seven ECE students, seven industrial de- CPEs and 10 industrial design students explored pervasive com- sign students and seven marketing students developed concepts for puting for improving safety on making dorm rooms more intelligent for students with disabilities. construction sites. “It was important to us to have equal numbers of students from each discipline,” Martin says. “That way, the team wasn’t dominated by one group “Communications is often or the other. That semester went very more important than the well.” The fall 2008 project was also a technical aspects.” more formal experience; the team had enlisted the help of Lisa McNair of en- For fall 2008, the faculty gineering education to help study and improve the learning experi- team wanted to add a business ence. McNair found the team some dedicated space, incorporated The laptop orchestra involved perspective and worked with team-building experiences early on and helped strengthen the embedding six speakers and three Eloise Coupey from market- communications links between the students from different back- amplifiers into a former IKEA salad ing, who had also worked on grounds. “For interdisciplinary teams like these, communications is bowl. The project goal was to get the P&G project. We needed often as important as the technical aspects,” Martin explains. the cost to $700 or below. marketing, Martin says. He This past fall, 2009, the faculty team tried a different strategy. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES orking across disciplines like computer engineering tion for a design and told to build something that meets the spec, and art is not easy, according to Martin, and the fac- he says. “We also find that the engineers want to drill down almost ulty mentors have learned much with each successive instantly and say, ‘here’s the widget,’ when we don’t even know yet project. if that’s the right widget to build.” “We’re trying to break through cultural barri- Even the experience of evaluation presents differences, he Wers that get established in the different disciplines,” he says. “If we notes. “The engineers have an expectation of how their grade will want engineers to be innovators and to help solve society’s needs, be calculated and that grade is important. The firms that recruit we need to give students true interdisciplinary experiences.” engineers have certain GPA expectations and the students want to One of the basic cultural differences between engineering and meet that. Whereas, the industrial design students are building a liberal arts students is the comfort level with unstructured explora- portfolio and grades are not as important.” tion in “wide-open problem spaces,” he says. “Ours is a very un- The faculty advisors have learned that even the space where the structured process. We start out saying, ‘here’s the problem area, team works is important to a team’s success — and that dedicated, what are the opportunities to make a new product?’” In his expe- unstructured space works best, so team members can leave materi- rience, the industrial design students are very comfortable in that als in one place, move around between groups. The faculty team situation and the computer engineers much less so. The computer discovered that being in a neutral place was also important, so that engineers have not had to deal with such a high level of uncertainty one set of students isn’t intimidated while the other is comfortably before in their classes. “A lot of team building happens during this at home. exploration phase,” and getting all the students involved is critical The first year, during the P&G competition, the team worked to success, he says. in space at the College of Arcitecture and Urban Studies that none In most engineering courses, the students are given a specifica- of the students had experienced before. The next year, the team

14 Instead of providing the students with a wide-open space to ex- use Wiimotes and nunchuks to plore, “we wanted them to redesign the firefighter helmet and bring control loudness, pitch, sound it into the 21st century. We presented a similar situation to having a color and more. customer come in with a specific problem.” The project did not go Building the speakers was as well as expected, but the faculty team is reviewing the project to a feat, Martin acknowledges. make adjustments for future projects. “Normal amplifiers drive two The team recently received a $396,000 grant from the Nation- speakers at a time and we need- al Science Foundation to study and develop improved pedagogical ed to physically fit three amp methods for teaching students how to collaborate in interdisciplin- boards in each salad bowl.” The ary environments. “We started this collaboration because we were students formed a production interested in working across disciplines,” Martin says. “It’s impor- line to build 18 of the speakers tant for engineers to be well prepared for this kind of work and and each student learned to solder and desolder in the process. we’re trying to improve how we teach them these skills.” In another project, for spring 2010, Martin and Paola Zellner In addition to the ongoing annual projects, Martin helps men- Bassett from the School of Architecture and Design are mentoring tor ad hoc interdisciplinary teams. Last summer, he teamed with a team of students who are developing a curtain for a fashion show Ivica Ico Bukvic of the Department of Music, Eric Standley of the that will feature lights that track the models on both sides. “The School of Visual Arts, and a group of students to develop a laptop students are using inexpensive strands of LED lights sewn on the orchestra based on Linux. The orchestra, called L2Ork, debuted in curtain fabric,” he explains. December 2009. “We still aren’t sure the control system will work,” he says, “There are other laptop orchestras around,” Martin says, “but adding that the faculty advisors get used to not knowing if proj- they are goldplated. Our goal was to get the cost at or below $700.” ects will come together at the end. “We’re as much interested in the The team used inexpensive notebook computers and IKEA salad process as the result,” he says. “The students still went through a bowls that serve as omnidirectional sound sources — each sport- process and if they made progress working across disciplines, then ing six speakers. The notebooks are networked and the operators we succeeded.”

started the semester in a classroom one time we ran the project as a special with desks. “That really wasn’t work- studies course instead of independent ing,” Martin says. So in the middle of studies, we decided it was too difficult the semester the team moved to the to develop a single course description industrial design studio space in Bur- that could satisfy both colleges.” chard Hall. “Although it was more There is a language barrier at the open and dedicated, the non-archi- faculty level as well, he notes. “If you tecture and design students felt less really want to watch a fun argument, like they owned the space.” The most tell somebody in industrial design recent teams have worked in “some- that engineers do design,” Martin what dedicated” space provided by suggests. “We had to dig way down engineering education, and although The faculty team has an NSF grant to study to reach an understanding on this. it’s engineering, it’s not the student’s and improve how to teach students interdis- The industrial designers are certainly disciplinary home and is serving well ciplinary collaboration. more focused on people than the de- as neutral space. signers in ECE. But I believe there are It’s not just the students who learn through the team efforts; good designers in both camps; that good designers have an appre- the faculty advisors also struggle at times with the gaps. “It’s hard as ciation for elegance and know how to use just the right amount and a faculty member. I’m going to walk in each time and have no idea not too much. Good designers know that you never get anything what I’ll be asked or what I’ll be called to contribute.” for free and they appreciate the right balance of elements to meet a It’s also hard to cross disciplines organizationally, he says. “The set of design constraints.”

15 PROMISING POWER BUILDING AN ENERGY LAB WITH SPARE PARTS AND CREATIVITY

CE students [and professors] are creating their own out- equipment and other needs. door laboratory to study alternative energy issues. With The first major effort involved renovating and installing an funding from the engineering fee, students in ECE 4304 abandoned 3-meter satellite dish for use as a solar collector. A local Design in Power Engineering are pouring concrete to sup- resident donated the dish, but the students dug it up and installed it port their equipment, building their systems, and repur- themselves. Although the white dish could collect enough energy Eposing old technology. A visit to the laboratory reveals a couple of to boil water, the students installed a reflective film (later upgraded highly reflective parabolas — former satellite dishes that have been to polished steel) to increase its solar gain. converted into solar collectors. Professor Tim Pratt, an old hand with using the dishes for “Students want to do hands-on work with alternative energy,” communications research, guided the team as it created a system to says Virgilio Centeno, an associate professor of ECE and the course allow the dish/solar collector to track the sun. The mechanism that supervisor. “We’re now giving them the chance.” moves the dish is powered by solar panels that were donated by the For several years, student design teams had tried working with College of Architecture and Urban Studies, so the entire operation solar panels installed at various locations on campus, but had to uses only alternative energy sources. With the last minutes of sun stop due to safety and access concerns, according to Centeno. This each day, the dish moves itself back to reset for the next day. past year, the ECE department was able to allocate some dedicated The students have been very enthusiastic about the repurposed outdoor space just off campus, with some shared interior space for dishes, according to Centeno. “There are a lot of abandoned satellite dishes, if we can find a cheap way to reuse them, that’s wonderful.” The course enrolls about 20 students each fall and about 30 each spring. The semester-long projects are limited, but many teams choose to build on efforts from prior semesters, or to establish new systems for future classes. For spring 2010, three senior ECE students are assembling two solar systems. One is a 500W (in midday sun in June) photovoltaic system that charges a battery. Mentored by Pratt, the students are measuring how much energy can be collected by a typical, commercially available photovoltaic system and comparing the cost to electricity bought from American Electric Power (AEP). According to Pratt, “it’s usually cheaper to buy from AEP.” The second system is a hot water generator that uses heating tubes and a heat exchanger. Such systems can be used to preheat

Yigit Can Ozen, Michael Brennan, Mark Saunders, and Messeret F. Gebre

16 Power design students have converted an abandoned satellite dish into a thermal collector that tracks the sun each day. The controller is powered by a solar panel nearby.

water for household use or to heat swimming pools. The hot water outside gets colder and air moving across it gets cooled. For con- can be used to store solar energy for use at night. tinuous cooling, however, the cycle needs to be repeated. Another group of students is studying some of the problems “We’re trying to build a closed system, so we need to boil the with the solar panels. Dirt and pollen building up on the panels sig- mixture to separate it into water and ammonia again.” The students nificantly affect their ability to capture energy. One possible way to are calculating the energy needed for the flame, and seeking ways to take care of this is to run water constantly over the solar panels, but increase the temperature without boiling, because of pressure con- the running water also takes energy and needs to be supplied by the cerns in a closed system. They also are measuring the amount of panels. This group will soon know if it’s worth it. energy lost as heat on the dish itself. If there is a significant amount, A third group is working on a solar tower, which operates like that heat can also be captured and used. a greenhouse to heat the inside air, which then rises through a cen- About these projects, De La Ree says, “If it works, great! If tral chimney to power turbines. Only three of these towers are in not, all our students will still know more about control systems, use in the world today: one in Spain, one in Australia, and one in alternative energy, and thermal power.” Texas. A fourth project, mentored by Jaime De La Ree, associate professor and assistant department head of ECE, explores the question of whether solar energy needs to be converted into electricity at all. “There is a lot of waste in converting solar energy into electricity and if the end use is something other than electricity, that conversion is wasted,” says De La Ree. The students are exploring using the reflective dishes directly for heating and air conditioning, which represent major uses of electricity around the world. “Converting solar energy into heat is much more efficient than converting it to electricity, which is then converted again to heat,” he says. Cooling is a bit trickier. The students are investigating the use of an ammonia-cycle chiller used in off- grid refrigeration systems. When water and ammonia are mixed, heat is absorbed. If the reaction takes place inside a vessel, the ANARCTIC BLAST One adventurous ECE Ph.D. student is studying space weather at the world’s northern-most university

athaniel Frissell is studying at The Uni- The Center for Space Science and Engineer- versity Centre in Svalbard (UNIS), ing Research (Space@VT) uses satellites, rockets, which is located on the Svalbard archi- magnetometers, and radar to study the various as- pelago, well north of the Arctic Circle. pects of space weather, including the deposition Svalbard is separated from main- of auroral energy, the motion and redistribution Nland Europe by several hundred miles of the Bar- of ionospheric plasma, the formation of irregu- ents Sea. It is a land of few inhabitants and no larities, and other disturbance effects. Tech is the Above: Nathaniel Frissell in trees — but an incredible view of auroras and lead U.S. institution on a series of radars that look Svalbard. Below: The University night-shining (noctilucent) clouds that are the vis- toward the poles from auroral latitudes. Center in Svalbard has about ible effects of space weather. The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network 350 students. Space weather is the interaction between the (SuperDARN) high-frequency coherent scatter solar wind and Earth’s magnetic field and upper radars is an international collaboration that con- atmosphere. Scientists and engineers are studying tinually maps plasma convection. The specialized space weather because it can interfere with com- facilities at Svalbard include high-power incoher- Visit Frissell’s blog: munications and GPS systems, generate electro- ent scatter radar, auroral imagers, an ionospheric sd-software.ece. magnetic impulses that disrupt the power grids, heater, and a rocket range. In addition, two Su- vt.edu/svalblog increase atmospheric drag on spacecraft and radia- perDARN radars located in Finland and Iceland

Get the free app for tion damage to spacecraft electronics and increase have fields-of-view that overlook Svalbard. These your phone at http://gettag.mobi radiation doses on transpolar airline flights. tools are necessary to gain a global-scale view of Left: Skiing during the first week the sun was visible. Top right: Aurora as seen by Frissen. Middle right: The Meridian Scanning Photometer observes the intensity of various colors at different points in the sky. Bottom right: A snøscooteren excursion.

upper atmospheric processes — and Frissell has servatory (KHO). The KHO is more than 1500 been sent to Svalbard to learn more. His is the ft above sea level and is usually accessible only by first of what his advisors Joseph Baker and Mike belt wagon (a large snow vehicle). “The KHO is Ruohoniemi hope will be many student exchang- home to many different instruments, almost all of es between UNIS and Virginia Tech. which can be thought of as very specialized cam- Taking two courses and conducting research eras,” writes Frissell. The class helped calibrate with Svalbard’s facilities, Frissell is gaining exper- three of the instruments. Splitting into two teams, tise not available anywhere else. Before he could plus a third for a polar bear watch, the students begin his studies, however, he had to complete were fortunate to have a night with no moon and required arctic survival training that included little aurora, which would negatively affect the avalanche rescue and polar bear safety. Roughly calibration measurements. It was a tricky opera- 3,000 polar bears live in Svalbard, and one or two tion that took nine hours — from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m. enter the town limits of Longyearbyen each year, Even the simple task of putting a power supply at which point, writes Frissell in his blog “they inside one of the instrument huts was unexpect- often become offerings on the menus of local res- edly difficult: the door lock had frozen shut and taurants. Safety regulations require that no one the ice had to be melted with a heat gun. leaves the city without the protection of a big- Frissell reports that the cold weather makes game rifle.” life easier in Svalbard. “The weather finally -de In Svalbard, Frissell is working with UNIS cided to turn cold again today; the temperature Professor Kjellmar Oksavik, investigating pulsa- is currently -14˚C [6.8˚F] and the sky is clear,” he tions in the electromagnetic field associated with says one day in his blog. “This makes people much the onset of magnetospheric substorms. “A mag- happier, for no one likes warm weather around netospheric substorm is the process that causes the here. Warm weather means lots of sliding around, explosive brightening of the aurora,” he explains. difficulty walking, rain, wetness, avalanches, and The team uses data from SuperDARN, satellites, very limited outdoor activity. With the cold and magnetometers located around the world. weather, people will return to skiing, snow scoo- “The research is...exciting because you devel- tering and the like.” op a much deeper understanding of an extremely As Frissell says, Svalbard is “the only place on beautiful and exotic natural phenom- enon (the aurora), as well as the fact that this work could have a direct im- Svalbard is the only place on earth pact on life on Earth. The processes and phenomena we are studying that is reasonable for habitation and allows affect the operation of communica- you to observe dayside aurora optically. tions and GPS satellites, as well as the PHOTOS COURTESY OF NATHANIEL FRISSELL safety of transpolar flights.” Frissell is taking two courses: one on Radar earth that is reasonable for habitation and allows Diagnostics of Space Plasma and another on the you to observe dayside aurora optically,” making Upper Polar Atmosphere. Instead of being taught it an important research destination for engineers by a single professor, a new guest lecturer arrives and scientists from all over the world. He writes every couple weeks, allowing students to learn that the globally diverse group at UNIS “made from some of the foremost experts in the field. watching the Olympics a great deal of fun...it was As part of his coursework, Frissell spent a the first time I have ever watched the games with week doing fieldwork at the Kjell Henriksen Ob- people from so many different countries.”

19 hocked by the low efficiency and high cost of solar-energy systems, many potential buyers decide to wait till new materials or photovol- the taic (PV) technology improve the affordability. Consumers don’t realize that with a better pow- Ser conditioning system, even today’s technology can be more affordable, according to Jason Lai, director of ECE’s Future Energy Electronics Center (FEEC). “You buy your panel and power electronics separate- NEW ly,” Lai explains. The panels typically run $2 per watt, so the manufacturers try to sell the cheapest control system, typically between 50 cents and $1 per watt. These systems are not designed for efficiency and create much of the operating problems with solar PV systems, he says. The problems can be significant. Currently, most commercial PV cells are connected in series to get the necessary voltage. So if one cell shuts down, the entire panel shuts off. Shade, clouds, and even bird droppings covering SOLAR any part of a PV cell can turn off an entire array. “If power generation suddenly spiked or dropped, Making solar energy because, for example, a cloud passed overhead, it could disrupt some of the existing systems,” explains graduate affordable, efficient & student Chris Hutchens, who works in the FEEC. “You’d be out on a beautiful sunny day and the whole thing would be down. It’s as if you flipped on the light switch at your user-friendly house and caused a blackout in your town,” he says.

20 Opposite page: The FEEC solar shed sits outside the laboratory, serving as a testbed for system designs. Above: A sunny day finds Chris Hutchens in the solar shed testing the PV conditioning system. Top right: The prototype FEEC power conditioning system for PV panels.

Lai and his team at the FEEC are trying to solve these problems A high switching frequency enables Lai’s group to integrate PV and capture more energy for the same panel cost — by improving panels with a small module that eliminates the need for electrolytic the power electronics system. He and Kathleen Meehan, an associ- capacitors. Electronics used with commercial solar panels today use ate professor of ECE, were recently awarded a $3.2 million grant electrolytic capacitors for smoothing the dc power. The capacitors, from the U.S. Department of Energy’s High Penetration Solar De- however, are short lived and require expensive maintenance. ployment effort. The program’s goal is to increase widespread com- The Virginia Tech team is not only lowering purchasing and mercialization of grid-tied solar PV sys- operating costs, but also providing a solar tems. The grant is part of the Green Jobs system for the future. “There is no need to initiative and aims not just at commercial- convert to ac at all for most modern appli- izing solar technology, but also at creating ances,” Lai says. “With each conversion, domestic jobs. you waste energy.” His system will give In order to connect to the 240V grid, the option for modern homes to access dc a PV system must produce 400V peak. Sin- power directly. He predicts that “ac will be gle solar panels typically produce an aver- obsolete in 100 years,” but expects that the age of 20V. Conventional lower-cost sys- first step will be buildings with both ac and tems today stack a number of 20V panels dc options. in series to reach the 400V maximum, then Nearly two dozen students are involved The team will demonstrate a proof- use a dc-ac inverter to match the electrical in the Future Energy Electronics Center, of-concept in 2011 and is working on IC grid. A number of companies are solving according to Jason Lai (foreground). design and low-cost production. They are this problem by using micro-inverters on “Students are very excited about this also making systems that are consumer- each panel to convert from 20V dc to 240V work,” he says. friendly. “We had another project a while ac, and connecting them in parallel. “These back where we told a corporate partner systems solve a lot of the problems,” Lai says, “but at a higher cost.” that our system worked,” recalls Hutchens. “They came over, He estimates the cost at more than $1 per watt. switched the power switch on and off really fast for a few minutes The FEEC solution is to install dc-dc converters directly on and it exploded.” Now the FEEC designs everything to withstand each 20V panel and then connect the outputs in parallel to a 400V significant abuse to make it absolutely hassle-free. dc bus. Then, just one high-power dc-ac inverter is needed for the “You should be able to install it in your car or house and it entire house to connect to the grid. The result is efficient system will work for 20 years without any fuel costs and very low mainte- operation at a currently estimated cost of 20 cents per watt. “My nance,” says Hutchens. goal, however, is 10 cents per watt,” Lai says. That’s good news for consumers.

21 LIFE BEYOND he increasingSILICON density and speed of to- tonics and interconnects, all monolithically inte- day’s semiconductor devices has hit grated onto silicon substrate.” the limits of silicon’s capability — and Orlowski, Hudait, and Louis Guido are a Virginia Tech microelectronics team seeking to meet this challenge by synthesizing is developing a technology to not just compound semiconductor materials on a silicon Tcontinue semiconductor miniaturization for logic substrate that would take advantage of established and memory chips, but also to colocate photonics silicon technology base as well as of the supe- applications with silicon-based circuitry, includ- rior photo-electronic properties of other mate- ing light generation by lasers and more efficient rials. “Silicon technology has 50 years under its solar-cells. The team’s technology vision may belt and commands an immense infrastructure,” open new possibilities of integrating optical and Orlowski says. “Circuit design methodology, logic functions. manufacturing-and-material know-how — the “The half-a-century-old silicon semiconduc- whole industry is geared for silicon… Although Top: Graduate Student tor technology is running out of steam,” com- we cannot claim we know all the properties of Coumba Ndoye holds a ments Marius Orlowski, the Virginia Microelec- silicon, we know a whole lot about this element. 12-inch silicon wafer tronics Consortium (VMEC) professor of ECE. It is probably the best researched element in the being used as a substrate “The current industry’s trajectory demands to periodic table.” to grow compound materi- continue the transistor miniaturization to render To take advantage of silicon technology in- als that could help improve chips denser and faster. However, currently there frastructure, but add new functions, the team is the next generation of is no consensus of how to accomplish this.” growing crystals of other so-called III-V com- semiconductor technology. Mantu Hudait, who joined ECE in 2009 after pound semiconductors — such as gallium ar- Above: Mantu Hudait (left) serving in Intel’s Advanced Transistor and Nano- senide — on a silicon substrate. Using a process and Marius Orlowski. technology Group, agrees. “I don’t think anyone called heterogeneous epitaxy, they are forcing the really knows how we will continue Moore’s Law III-V material to grow in single-crystalline struc- [doubling the number of transistors on a chip ture on large-area, low-cost silicon wafers. every two years] in the foreseeable future where The challenges of heterogeneous epitaxy in- the device dimensions are 15nm or below. There- volve defects, processes that need to be controlled fore, it is an excellent opportunity to explore new on an atomic scale, co-integration of heteroge- materials and device architectures, innovation for neous technology, and demonstration of manu- low-power and high-speed logic, memory, pho- facturing viability.

22 LOWER-COST SOLAR CELLS uccess in integrating III-V compounds on silicon sub- Sstrates can lead to affordable (cost-efficient) photovoltaic (PV) and thermophotovoltaic (TPV) systems, says Mantu Hudait. “The biggest challenge for PV is drastically reduc- Materials are controlled with single atomic layer preci- ing the cost per watt to deliver solar electricity.” While sion. A key enabling tool for deposition of subnanometer power electronics researchers at Tech are enhancing dielectric layers is the so-called Atomic Layer Deposition conversion efficiency, Hudait is pursuing lowering the chamber seen in the forefront. cost of highly efficient solar cells. The crystalline defects arise mainly from mismatch between PV cells are usually made of a stack of up to 10 different crystal lattices and their thermal mismatch, according to different materials of which the composition has to be Orlowski. When a material is forced onto the crystal template of minutely controlled — each being optimal at converting another, “you are changing the natural distance between atoms, a different part of the trying to squeeze or stretch a material’s structure into different solar light spectrum into atomic distances,” he explains. This puts the new material under electricity, he explains. compressive or tensile stress and allows this stress energy to acccu- Each layer of a cell, how- mulate. “The more layers you grow, the more stress energy will be ever, adds materials and accumulated. In seeking equilibrium configuration, the composite processing cost as well material tries to release this energy in the form of defects. The ques- as manufacturing time. tion then becomes how to confine defects to certain areas and not Moreover, any single lay- let them propagate to the area where we want to form transistors er cannot exceed 30-per- that require highly defect-free crystals.” cent efficiency according Another difficulty is coming up with an optimal process flow to the laws of physics as for creating devices with these new materials — the process flow defined by the Shockley- for creating devices in silicon can’t be transferred unaltered to this Queisser limit. “Even a new world. “Our knowledge of these III-V semiconductors must hypothetical cell with an yet catch up with our knowledge of silicon in the next five to 10 infinite number of light- years,” says Orlowski. converting layers would Synthesizing compound semiconductor materials on silicon have a conversion ef- substrates is a big challenge, he says. “However, if this can succeed, ficiency just under 70 then it opens wonderful new opportunities, such as allowing inte- percent,” he says. gration of silicon-based electronics with optical devices.” One ma- “The real question jor limitation of silicon is that it does not convert light well on its is,” Hudait says, “if you own. But with two or more materials on the same substrate, many want to buy energy, what new applications are possible, such as on-chip lasers for sensors and is its cost per watt?” His even efficient solar cells. solution is to use the The team is well poised for success, according to Orlowski. compound III-V technol- “My experience is in the silicon world; Hudait is a specialist in ogy on silicon and to make the layers thinner, and use growing III-V compound semiconductors and device structures fewer layers to reduce the cost. “A 10 micron thickness heterogeneiously onto Si And Ge substrates, and Guido is a special- has been demonstrated in the literature to achieve 41 ist in compound semiconductor-based laser and optoelectronic de- percent efficiency. I propose we build a 5-micron thick vices. It will take the three of us to realize this vision of bringing the active layer and accept 30-percent efficiency. We give two worlds together. Together we have all the expertise we need to up some efficiency for a much lower cost such that so- meet this challenge.” lar PV systems can become more acceptable.”

23 ELECTRONICS Miniature dc-dc converter shrinks 51% iang Li, a CPES Ph.D. student, is working on creating miniature, higher-current dc-dc con- Qverters that are suitable for applications such as laptops. Today’s dc converters offer a choice of only one out of two options: high power density (W/in3) or high current (20A or higher). To create a small converter able to handle high currents, Li is adapting the 3-D integration technology currently used in low power converters and the converter is integrated onto a single chip, saving space Graduate student Qiang Li with a miniature dc-dc converter and increasing power density. The converter pictured here represents a 51 percent reduction The new converter is embedded as a bare die on ceramic using a in size from the first prototype developed at CPES in 2006 and a “stacked power” packaging technology that offers six times greater seven-times improvement over industry state-of-the-art. The two- thermal conductivity than a traditional printed circuit board. The phase, four MOSFET converter produces converts 40A from 5V to improved thermal performance of the ceramic leads to an even dis- 1.2V, coupling together the 20A capacity of each phase. Even at this tribution of temperature, preventing hotspots. higher current, the power density is about 500 W/in3.

SiC switch handles heat 100° higher than silicon

n collaboration with Boeing, CPES researchers have been working on a silicon carbide (SiC) high power density mo- Itor drive (HDMC) designed to regulate and control the speed and torque of a motor. It takes in 230V, variable frequency, three-phase ac power, converts it to 650V dc inter- nally, and then outputs up to 10kW three-phase ac to the high density permanent magnet synchronous motor developed in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The team has achieved a very good power-to-weight ratio, exceeding 2kW per pound. The use of SiC enables the switch to handle temperatures of up to 250°C, 100°C higher than comparable silicon-based technology. The higher maximum temperature means that less space and weight needs to be devoted to heat management, increasing power density and improving the power-to- weight ratio.

Graduate student Puqi Ning

24 RESEARCH

Building a single-phase converter for airplanes CONTROLS n cooperation with Rolls Royce, the Center for Power Limited Electronics Systems (CPES) has developed a new single- Iphase ac-dc converter technology with a high-power density suitable for use in airplanes. Although most convention- communication al high-power ac-dc converters are three-phase, airplanes and too much noise sometimes use multiple single phase converters to enable redundant operation if one should fail. However, standard ow much communication does a task force of ve- single-phase converters have a large bulk capacitor to hicles really need to autonomously complete a given smooth out the natural waveform of single-phase ac power. Hmission? The answer is surprisingly small. Dan Stil- To reduce the bulk capacitor size, CPES has added an well and his students in the Autonomous Systems and addition to the converter’s output that alternately absorbs Controls Laboratory (ASCL) are developing a new class of and boosts the output energy complementary to the input algorithms that not only enable teams of autonomous ve- power pulsation. This active method of ripple power man- hicles to cooperate, but do so with as little communication agement greatly reduced the total size of the converter, as possible between vehicles. boosting power density. The researchers are not just developing algorithms, but also testing and perfecting them using Virginia Tech’s own fleet of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). The group recently field tested data fusion and motion control algorithms using two Virginia Tech 475 AUVs. Each AUV towed a custom hydrophone array built by Vir- ginia Tech students that measures the relative bearing to a source of acoustic noise. The AUVs maneuvered themselves into the best positions to cooperatively identify the location of an acoustic source. During the entire mission, the AUVs exchanged only a total of seven one-way data packets. The lab has also developed a new class of extended/ Graduate student Ruxi Wang iterated Kalman filters that correctly account for state- dependent sensor noise and show significant performance improvement over more typical Kalman filters. These fil- Concentrating gases ters are useful for many applications, but were developed to help with the hydrophone array towed by the lab’s at the micro scale AUVs. The noise of the sensor depends on the state of hromatography, the separation of a mixture into its compo- the system and this violates the requirements of a typical nents, is getting small and portable. Masoud Agah’s team at Kalman filter. “We are very excited that we have actually Cthe MEMS Laboratory is working with microelectromechani- implemented these ideas on real vehicle systems,” Stilwell cal systems (MEMS) and nano-technologies to implement a vapor said. “It is rare and very exciting for new theoretical de- preconcentrator. The preconcentrator would become part of a sys- velopments such as ours to be demonstrated in the field, tem for micro gas chromatography that has applications in environ- and to have the field trials so convincingly demonstrate the mental monitoring and homeland security. utility of the new theory!” In collaboration with Convergent Engineering, Inc., the group is working to develop preconcentrator chips that will enable the production of portable, low-power systems to detect gases using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry. Convergent Engineer- ing intends to use the technology to build a monitoring system to analyze breath to determine the amount of propofol, a common anesthetic, in a person’s blood.

25 POWER & ENERGY

Using frequency measurements from grid to analyze audio

ata from Virginia Tech’s frequency monitoring network ginia Tech’s faculty. FNET is a system of 60 frequency disturbance (FNET), which monitors the entire U.S. power grid, may recorders (FDRs) spread across all three U.S. power grids, that Dhelp improve the analysis and verification of audio recordings. uses GPS timing to synchronize data. The FDRs are plugged into With the advent of digital recording, forensic methods of standard 120V outlets at universities and offices across the country. examining audio recordings for editing and authenticity need to Since the units do not need to be installed at substations, FNET probe updated, according to Richard Conners, an associate professor vides an independent observation system of the U.S. power grids. emeritus and research associate professor. Traditional methods of Conners says the team is doing “basic, not applied research: analyzing analog audiotapes depend on mechanical and physical we’re figuring out questions such as, can you match patterns, and if interactions with the hardware. One of the most promising new so, how long do they have to be?” The team will look into the best methods was first proposed in Europe a few years ago and suggests methods for extracting the ENF from the surrounding background that the electric network frequency (ENF) can be used to identify noise and voice patterns of a recording. Right now, Conners says, location and time, he says. every known method exhibits a “tragic flaw” under certain condi- “It turns out there is a hum that can be detected in recordings,” tions. Conners explains, “and it matches the frequency of the grid.” The The team will identify best practices, in order to show how dif- ENF signal is embedded into the audio in recorders that are plugged ferent techniques might be combined or used depending on the re- directly into the wall, as well as in battery-operated devices that cording’s nature and place of origin. Ultimately, the goal is to create pick up the signals from nearby power lines or unshielded electronic a body of evidence, supported by good, peer-reviewed science, that devices. Like the frequency of the grid, the ENF signal is a random a prosecutor or defense attorney could call upon in a court of law to pattern that varies within a 59.5-60.5 Hz range. uphold or disprove the authenticity of recorded audio as evidence. Conners is principal investigator on a $864,000, three-year The key focus of the research, Conners remarks, will be improving grant from the National Institutes of Justice to investigate this the “accuracy, reliability, and validity” of the signal processing and method. He is working with Yilu Liu of the University of Ten- analysis procedures. nessee-Knoxville, who developed the FNET system while on Vir-

VT developing smart grid clearinghouse

irginia Tech has been awarded a $1.25 million five-year con- The SGIC portal is designed to serve as a repository for pub- tract by the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop, manage, lic smart grid information and to direct its users to other pertinent Vand maintain a public Smart Grid Information Clearinghouse sources or databases for additional data, case studies, etc. It will fa- (SGIC) web portal that encourages use of electricity in an environ- cilitate direct sharing and dissemination of smart grid information mentally responsible way. Project partners IEEE and the EnerNex among various stakeholders on knowledge gained, lessons learned, Corporation will assist with content, which includes demonstration and best practices. The portal will also serve as a decision support projects, use cases, standards, legislation, policy and regulation, les- tool for both state and federal regulators in their deliberations for sons learned and best practices, and advanced topics dealing with re- rule-making and evaluating the impact of their investments in the search and development. The award, is part of $47 million in fund- smart grid technologies and software. ing under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for eight “We envision the portal as the essential gateway that connects projects to further smart grid demonstration efforts in seven states. a smart grid community to the relevant sources of information that Saifur Rahman, director of the Advanced Research Institute are currently scattered and distributed on the worldwide web,” said (ARI) in the National Capital Region, is serving as principal inves- Rahman. tigator (PI) for the SGIC portal. —Barbara Micale

26 RESEARCH Team seeks MRI-quality grid monitoring n ECE team led by Arun Phadke is working with Dominion began nearly 27 years ago. He invented the key building block of Virginia Power to push power grid monitoring from “X-ray this technology — the phasor measurement unit — and credits Aquality to MRI-quality.” The $1.5 million project, funded by the 2003 blackout of the northeast United States for initiating the the DoE, involves synchrophasor technology first built at Virginia emergence of this technology. Tech. “A smarter, more efficient and reliable electric grid means bet- The research project also involves Quanta Technology of Ra- ter service for customers, benefits for the environment and lower leigh, N.C. costs in the long run,” said Dominion Virginia Power Chief Ex- “If you characterize the current state of technology for moni- ecutive Officer Paul Koonce. “What is particularly appealing about toring the power system as an X-ray image, synchrophasor tech- this technology is that it can be applied to our existing transmission nology will provide MRI-quality data,” said Phadke. “Dominion’s network, not just new projects.” system is a unique and good proving ground for application of these The new technology provides grid operators with the ability techniques.” to better foresee, prevent and manage potential overloads on the Phadke’s work with synchrophasor technology, which pro- grid, and route power more efficiently. This enables maximum ef- vides precise, real-time data on transmission system conditions, ficiency and reliability for Dominion’s transmission grid.

Graph trace analysis for power system design obert Broadwater and his students are add- in GTA that are independent of the systems be- Ring capabilities to a power distribution sys- ing analyzed. tem design program called Graph Trace Analysis Ph.D. student Lynn Feinauer developed an (GTA). Modeling power grid systems in Graph object-oriented framework for GTA such that the Trace Analysis (GTA) to determine priorities in object is the engineering algorithm. These new electrical failure, Ph.D. student David Kleppinger capabilities extend the use of GTA and are ap- is developed a new notation to write algorithms plicable for many applications. Synchrophasors monitoring grid, preventing blackouts

CE researchers garnered two of only four stimulus grants from can reduce the likelihood of false trips by protection systems and the Department of Energy (DOE) to modernize the power lessen the likelihood of contributing to a cascading effect. Egrid. The awards, totaling $2.6 million are headed by James Thorp’s team will develop and demonstrate tools using syn- Thorp and Arun Phadke. chrophasor measurements to reduce the likelihood of false and Collaborators for decades, Thorp and Phadke have developed inappropriate triggers of transmission system circuit breakers that a number of advances that strengthen the electric utility industry’s protectively shut down electrical flow and contribute to cascading ability to prevent power grid blackouts, or to make them less in- blackouts. tense and easier to recover from. According to the DOE, Phadke Members of the team include colleagues from Pacific Gas and and Thorp’s newly funded work will now advance technologies Electric Co., Oakland, Ca., Southern California Edison, Rosemead, that rely on the exchange of synchrophasor data among electric Ca., San Diego Gas and Electric Co., San Diego, Ca., Mississippi utility companies and other electricity entities. State University, the California Energy Commission, Sacramento, Synchrophasors are high-speed, real-time synchronized mea- Ca., and Quanta Technology, Raleigh, N.C. surement devices used to diagnose the health of the electricity grid. Phadke’s team will develop analytic tools and calibration With synchrophasor data, electric utilities can use existing power techniques for measurement devices to implement an innovative more efficiently and push more power through the grid while re- synchrophasor-based tracking system to monitor the state of the ducing the likelihood of power disruptions like blackouts. electric grid. The techniques will better diagnose the sources of This new research will build upon a recently completed three- network unbalances and identify actions needed to remedy them. year project funded by the California Energy Commission through His project team includes researchers from Dominion Virginia the Public Interest Energy. Its findings indicated the use of wide Power, Richmond, Va., and Quanta Technology, Raleigh, N.C. area synchrophasor measurements in electrical power systems can Virgilio Centeno is working on both projects. be of significant value to power companies. These measurements -Lynn Nystrom

27 BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS New ultrasound technology Catching cancer cells — shows promise on a chip

ltrasound imaging has become one of the most widely or many forms of cancer, including breast cancer, the cancer used medical imaging technologies for diagnostics and cells have spread throughout the body before a primary tumor Uguiding images for surgical intervention because of its Fcan be detected. Detecting it early, therefore, is vital for high high portability, non-ionization, non-invasiveness and low survival rates. cost. Standard ultrasound systems (B-scan) use the reflection of Masoud Agah is leading a project to make this possible with an sound waves to produce images of what lies beneath the sur- NSF interdisciplinary research (IDR) grant — the first at Virginia face of an object. However, due to constructive and destructive Tech. The grant is for groups requiring specialized knowledge in interference of echo signals, significant speckle patterns have multiple areas, and the NSF hopes that the IDR grants will pave the been the limiting factor on the image quality and broader use way to new fields of research. of conventional ultrasound. Using breast cancer as their model, Virginia Tech’s group is Chu Chuan Liu and his advi- developing a micro- sor, Yue (Joseph) Wang, are using chip that detects the a novel, two-dimensional, ultra- presence of even a sound sensor from Imperium, Inc. single cancer or pre- to investigate a projection ultra- cancerous cell among sound system (C-scan). a population of pri- C-scan operates much like marily healthy cells. a conventional X-ray system in Agah explains that which a source transmits signals the chip will “ex- through the object that are re- ploit changes in the corded by a sensor on the opposite biomechanics and Projection ultrasound side. This configuration eliminates bioel-ectrical properties that occur in cells as a result of progression system design the speckle problem of B-scan sys- to a cancer state….[it] combines the information from two differ- tems and enables the use of computed tomography (CT) algo- ent domains (mechanical and electrical) to diagnose a cancer or pre- rithms for generating three-dimensional images as in an X-ray cancerous state.” CAT scan. Medical applications in biopsy monitoring, foreign The chip works by allowing cells to adhere to the surfaces of object detection, real-time imaging and mammography have the chip. Healthy cells will adhere mostly to the flat surfaces, and been explored with the experimental system, yet with promis- cancer cells will adhere to the microengineered portions. Because ing results. it operates under static conditions, the chip does not require extra devices such as pumps or valves.

ECE imaging researcher Chris Wyatt has collaborated with Dr. Ge Wang in the School of Biomedical Engineering and Sciences to build the new SBES Multi-scale Advanced CT (SAM-CT) facility, located at the Nano Characterization and Fabrication Laboratory in the Corporate Research Center. The facility brings together various state- of-the-art CT scanners under one roof, allowing the user to acquire CT scans at various spatial resolutions — ranging from mm to 50nm. This unique combination of equipment allows the development of multi-scale methods in biological phenotyping, material characterization, and geological applications.

28 RESEARCH ECE team part of new systems biology cancer center CE faculty members are part of a new $7.5 million Center for gy, a field that is rapidly seen as an essential component in the future Cancer Systems Biology that is investigating the development of cancer research. The center is lead by researchers at the Lombardi Eand treatment of breast cancer, with a specific focus on the es- Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical trogen receptor in breast cells. Center, who are providing the experimental expertise. ECE’s Yue This protein determines which women will develop the most (Joseph) Wang and Jason Xuan of the Advanced Research Institute common kind of breast cancer and how they will fare during their in Arlington, are providing the bioinformatic analysis of the data; treatment. The ultimate goal of the center, which is funded by the and ECE’s Bill Baumann and John Tyson of biology will build the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is to develop more advanced and mathematical models. Guided by the experimental findings and the better-targeted treatments for the disease. predictions of the mathematical models, researchers at Fox Chase The new center is part of NCI’s Integrative Cancer Biology Cancer Center of Philadelphia will test what happens when specific Program, which is the NCI’s primary effort in cancer systems biolo- genes and proteins are knocked out.

Burning cancer with ‘Holey scaffolds’ under development fiberoptic microneedles for in-situ imaging, drug delivery CE assistant professor Yong Xu is on a team that is working on n ECE/School of Biomedical Engineering Sciences (SBES) an minimally invasive technology for laser-based photothermal team is building a first-of-its-kind engineered platform to per- Etherapy. Currently, laser therapies are limited by the difficulty Aform real-time imaging of tissue regeneration at the cellular of getting high doses of light into deep tumor tissue while avoiding and molecular levels. Called “holey scaffolds,” the environments injury to nearby healthy tissue. Xu and his team have invented a are based on a novel combination of fiber optics and tissue regenera- fiberoptic microneedle device (FMD), which enables what Xu calls tion technology. “a new regime of minimally-invasive therapeutic procedures.” The “Despite their complex 3-D structures, tissues and organs are FMD is comprised of one or more optically transparent glass fibers primarily studied using highly invasive 2-D in vitro techniques, guided into a patient’s tissue by a novel elas- such as biopsy and histology that can only provide limited infor- tomeric support ferrule,” explains Xu. Each mation at a few discrete time points,” fiber is tapered to a needle point and is only says ECE’s Yong Xu, who is principal in- 40 microns in diameter. This allows the nee- vestigator on the effort. In contrast, the dles to penetrate the skin painlessly, “similar holey scaffold technology will provide to the dynamics of a mosquito bite.” Microneedle real-time, 3-D information on the com- The team also envisions several addi- penetration of plex biological processes involved in re- tional applications of the device. By using ex vivo porcine generative medicine. Holey scaffolds will hollow fiber tubes, nanomaterials or drugs skin. initially be tested for bone-regeneration, can be inserted to a target site. It will be pos- but have wide-ranging potential in the sible to deliver chemotherapy directly to a tumor, rather than run medical field. The project is funded by Virginia Tech’s Institute for the risk of introducing it into the patient’s whole system. Before Critical Technologies and Applied Science (ICTAS). SBES faculty treatment, the microneedle device also can be used to detect and members on the team include Ge Wang, Joseph Freeman, Nichole identify cancer. Xu is working with Chris Rylander and Nichole Rylander, and Chris Rylander. Rylander of SBES on the project, which is funded by the NSF. Optically monitoring fumes from steel welding he Center for Photonics Technology ness and increase the risk of lung cancer. bination of fiber technology, optical spec- (CPT) is developing fiber-optic-based With current technology, detecting danger- troscopy, and signal processing, the team Ttechnology to monitor welding fumes ous levels of these fumes is time-consum- plans to capture the optical signatures of in real time. ing, and requires first collecting a sample welding fumes, allowing them to develop Welding fumes are one of the major and then analyzing it. cost-effective systems for monitoring these health hazards for construction workers, Yong Xu and Anbo Wang are working fumes on-site. according to the National Occupational with Zhiwen Liu of Penn State to develop The project is funded by the Nation- Research Agenda. Prolonged exposure to a system to continuously monitor sites for al Institute for Occupational Safety and welding fumes may lead to respiratory ill- harmful levels of fumes. Using a novel com- Health.

29 ELECTROMAGNETICS Propagation model may help police quiet zone while boosting access to wireless services

n ECE propagation model that incorporates variations of terrain may provide the precision needed to improve both the Aprotection of the National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) and residents’ access to wireless services. The NRQZ spans a region in West Virginia and Virginia that surrounds the Green Bank National Radio Astronomy Observa- tory (NRAO). Radio signals that could cause interference to the radio telescopes are considered illegal — including wireless Inter- The National Radio Quiet Zone, established in 1958, cov- net networks that leak outdoors and even cellular phone service to ers approximately 13,000 square miles of land spanning a ski resort. the border between Virginia and West Virginia. Improved propagation models would enable better predictions of interference, possibly leading to some relaxation of lim- he says. “It turns out that the earth is not a perfect conductor, which its in specified locations, according to Gary Brown, director of the must also be taken into account for predicting the behavior of radio ElectroMagnetics Interactions Laboratory (EMIL). “With more waves.” accurate models, those policing the quiet zone may be able to al- Brown and his team have been taking measurements at Green low more powerful signals in certain situations.” The EMIL team Bank and in the surrounding area to validate their model. “We recently developed a computationally efficient method to model aren’t trying to fit the existing data,” he explains, “but see how the how terrain affects communications signals and other electromag- new models compare to the old. We want to be able to accurately netic waves and is working with NRAO engineers to validate and predict a signal from point A to point B.” improve the model. Policing the quiet zone isn’t the only application of the new The EMIL models integrate along the whole path instead of propagation research. Naval vessels moving in the littoral zone, just working with certain data points, as done in commercially where the land meets ocean would also benefit from knowing how available models. The data is still only taken at certain locations, signals are traveling across land, he says. Another application would but generating a set of random curves to connect those points in- be for cognitive and smart radios; if they could predict the neces- troduces error from which they can generate a standard deviation. sary signal level, they could conserve power. “We’ve got the topographical modeling down, now we’re The effort is funded by the Naval Surface Warfare Center, the working on incorporating the electrical conductivity of the soil,” NRAO, and the Army Research Office.

Measuring the nanoscale characteristics of ultrafast optical pulses ltrafast optical tech- ultrashort optical pulses as short as a few femtoseconds, no way ex- nology, which in- ists to observe all three dimensions of an ultrafast optical pulse at the Uvolves the generation nano scale without disturbing the pulse’s operation. of optical pulses mea- Yong Xu is working with Zhiwen Liu of Penn State to develop sured in femtoseconds, a nanoprobe to solve the problem. The probe, which consists of a has emerged as the natural nanoparticle attached to a silica fiber by a nanowire, will be able to complement to nanotechnology. There’s only one hold-up in in- sense both the temporal and spatial characteristics of an ultrashort tegrating the technologies: the nanoscale characteristics of ultrafast optical pulse. Because the sensor itself is at the nanoscale, it pro- optical pulses can’t be fully measured. duces a minimal amount of optical scattering and does not disturb Although optical imaging can attain resolution on the scale of what it observes. 50 to 100 nanometers, and characterization tools can characterize The research is funded by a $300,000, 3-year NSF grant.

30 RESEARCH Modeling how geomagnetic Space@VT building storms heat the ionosphere, chain of instrument stations create satellite drag in Antarctica eomagnetic storms generate a changing heat pattern in the embers of the Space@VT research group are receiving a upper atmosphere, which creates a drag on low-orbit satel- $2 million grant from the NSF to build a chain of space Glites and debris. ECE’s Dan Weimer wants to better predict Mweather instrument stations in Antarctica. Space weather this drag through improved models and has been awarded a three- affects a variety of everyday consumer technologies including year, $375,000 grant from NASA to support the effort. global positioning systems GPS, satellites for television reception, The interaction of solar wind with the Interplanetary Mag- and cellular phones. Also, the understanding of space weather is netic Field (IMF) causes significant energy transfer to the iono- critical to space programs. sphere at high latitudes. “This leads to added heat in the upper The northern hemisphere is already well instrumented as a atmosphere and thermosphere, the same interaction that is associ- number of stations currently exist in the Arctic, including an ar- ated with the aurora,” he explains. In major geomagnetic storms, ray in Greenland. But due primarily to the “extreme Antarctic cli- this heating causes low-altitude satellites to experience a higher mate and lack of manned facilities with the necessary infrastruc- drag force, which results in problems with their tracking, he says. ture to support facilities, the southern polar region is not,” said Weimer is comparing the heat flowing into the thermosphere Robert Clauer, who is leading the effort. Data from the southern from different sources. He is focusing particularly on the change magnetic field is weaker than the northern magnetic polar field in the global temperature of the thermosphere during geomag- because its “magnetic dipole is offset from the center of the earth netic storms. He also will be improving the empirical models that and tilted,” he explained. calculate the ionospheric electric fields and currents. The thermo- The research team also includes Joseph Baker, Tamal Bose, sphere is the part of the upper atmosphere above 90 km (56 miles) Majeid Manteghi , and Brent Ledvina of Coherent Navigation. where the temperature rapidly increases from -170°F to more —Lynn Nystrom than 1200°F, due to heating by solar ultra-violet radiation. Long Wavelength Array

large radio telescope that is expected to eventually span a 400-ki- lometer region of New Mexico is under construction to study in- A terstellar and intergalactic events as well as turbulence in Earth’s ionosphere. ECE’s Steve Ellingson, Cameron Patterson and Majid Manteghi are working with researchers from the University of New Mexico, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to build a number of array stations distributed across New Mexico. Each station will consist of 256 pairs of dipole-like antennas that operate over the frequency range 10-88 MHz. The outputs will be sent to a central location where they will be cor- related to form images using aperture synthesis techniques. With an estimated image sensitivity of a few millijanskys (1 millijansky equals 10- 29 watts per square meter per hertz), the angular resolution and sensitivity of the LWA should be comparable to existing instruments operating at shorter wavelengths. Existing arrays built on previous technology are very narrowband, whereas LWA is very broadband, Ellingson noted. “That’s enabled by a better antenna design combined with better analog electronics,” he

added. UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO COURTESY OF J. CRAIG, The team’s goal is to build 53 array stations, but to date, two sta- For more information, please visit: tions have been funded and funding is projected for two more. Virginia Tech’s team, which built and operated a similar, but smaller, telescope lwa.unm.edu near Asheville, N.C., is focusing on the LWA’s calibration, data recording, transient detection, and monitoring and control systems.

31 COMMUNICATIONS Wireless network fingerprints technique helps identify location spoofers

ervasive wireless networking, while con- Standard localization methods assume that network clients are venient for users, presents an ever-increas- truthful in the information that they provide about original signal Ping attack surface for hostile hackers. At- strength and other location parameters, and so are unable to counter tackers may try to misrepresent or hide their such attacks effectively. Other techniques have been proposed to own location, or modify, forge, hide, or steal detect and localize an attacker using signal strength only, but they the location information of legitimate users. rely on expensive or time-consuming research into an area’s radio Although much research has gone into map or other pre-established statistical information. Moreover, the improving location systems for legitimate use, previous methods cannot deal with beamforming attacks and mo- relatively little has been done on detecting and bile attackers. countering attackers, according to Jeong Lee, Lee’s and Buehrer’s solution is based on examining relative who, with his advisor, Michael Buehrer, has location error, rather than its absolute value. It relies on a set of developed new detection and positioning tech- new statistical and pattern matching algorithms based on norma- niques. tive signal strength data. Called “topological residual fingerprint Lee’s work focuses on detecting and local- matching,” the technique is able to successfully identify attacks in izing spoofing attacks — those who disguise the progress, without any specific location or map information neces- source of their signal and thus their position in the network. Lee sary. They also suggested a novel technique for tracing the forged described two possible methods of forging an attack location: signal signals back to their real location against both signal strength and strength attacks, in which the attacker falsifies information about beamforming attacks. his transmit signal strength; and beamforming attacks in which at- The work is funded by a $231,000 NSF grant, with Yaling tacker’s antenna radiation pattern and strength are controlled as de- Yang as principal investigator and Buehrer and Jung-Min Park as sired to one or more specific receivers. co-investigators.

Undergraduates experience wireless research in REU program

ach summer, 10 undergraduate students from Virginia Tech and elsewhere have the opportunity to work in EWireless@VT laboratories and engage in cognitive communications research. The opportunity is part of the NSF Re- search Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Helping faculty members with ongoing research projects, the students spend 10 weeks receiving instruction on and re- searching the various aspects of cognitive communications, including software defined radios, cognitive radios, wireless networks, wireless communication circuits, and human factors engineering in communications. The researchers are mentored by Tamal Bose and other Signal propagation in deep foliage faculty members of Wireless@VT. They will have weekly in- aris Volos (left) from Wireless@Virginia Tech and Chris An- dividual and group meetings in which they will report on their derson of the Wireless Measurements Group at the U.S. Na- research and plans, and present short papers on the aspects of Hval Academy are working on characterizing the signal propa- the research they find most interesting. gation of Ultra Wide-Band (UWB) signals in forest environments. Students gain hands-on experience in the field and develop The results from these measurements are expected to enable the de- research and teamwork skills. Most importantly, students will velopment of UWB devices for applications such as: environmental play an active role in furthering meaningful research in cogni- monitoring, wildlife tracking, position location, and search-and- tive communications. rescue operations.

32 RESEARCH Wireless network fingerprints VT cognitive radio technology technique helps identify location spoofers to help improve railway communications,safety

Wireless@VT research team is adapting Virginia Tech cogni- (Rail-CR), however, would incorporate additional adaptation to tive radio technology to improve safety and operations of the mitigate crowded spectrum, intentional jamming or learn from past A nation’s railways. experiences.” The effort is funded through the Federal Railway Administra- The ECE team is developing a cognitive engine that uses AI tion’s Office of Research and Development and dovetails with the tools such as case-based reasoning and optimization algorithms. Positive Train Control (PTC) technology being implemented under The cognitive engine will also incorporate a policy engine that the U.S. Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008. PTC is expected would prevent the radio from operating outside the policies of the to be implemented by 2015 and to include wireless communication area. “This is particularly important when a train runs along the and GPS navigation throughout the rail system. border of another state or country,” Amanna explains. Under a PTC system, trains are expected to communicate with The resulting cognitive engine will be provided open source a base station and control center when they enter a rail yard. Using for easy integration with any software defined radio. Amanna is the highest bandwith available, a train would download the data re- working with Manik Gadhiok, Matthew Price, and co-principal in- garding up-to-the-minute status in the yard. While traveling, trains vestigator Jeffrey Reed on the Rail-CR effort. The research team is will communicate with wayside wireless stations — delivering in- integrating the software-based cognitive engine with a private part- formation about their location, speed, and direction, while acquir- ner’s railway specific SDR. ing information about the situation ahead and where they are allowed to travel. Wireless communication with trains can be challenging, acknowledges Ashwin Amanna, a senior research associate and the project’s principal investigator. Not only is the train’s situation constantly changing, but so is the communications environment, with changing noise, multiple sources of interference, potential for multiple users contending for limited spectrum, and unpredictable usage by the users, he says. “The railway industry is starting to use software defined radios (SDRs) that have a reconfigurable platform capable of condensing multiple radios into a single unit,” he notes. “A railroad-specific cognitive radio

Center for Intelligence Community

n ECE team is partnering with Howard University to establish effort to carry out America’s national security imperatives over the an Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence. long term,” according to its call for proposals from universities. AThe initial award is $1 million, with an optional extension. The initial award is for $1 million over two years with an Jeff Reed heads the effort and Tamal Bose and Ashwin Amanna are optional three-year extension for a total of $2.5 million over five on the leadership team. This is one of the few such centers with an years. Virginia Tech and Howard will split the resources. engineering thrust. Reed credited the coordinated efforts of Wireless@VT, the While engineering oriented, the program strives for cross-dis- largest wireless communications/networks research center in the ciplinary involvement, and students from all majors who have an nation, as appealing to the IC community. “We have encompassing interest in pursuing national security careers can reap benefits. expertise in critical IC focus areas such as wireless communications, The Intelligence Community sponsors the creation of these computer networks, antenna design, microelectronics, system inte- centers at academic institutions to promote the alignment of cur- gration, spectrum policy/economy, and very large integrated cir- ricula (for example, scientific and technical programs of study, in- cuitry,” Reed said. ternational relations, foreign language/cultural immersion) in “an -Lynn Nystrom

33 NETWORKING Orchestrating the end of manual network design

aling Yang, Michael Hsiao, and Luiz DaSilva are building a of routing components to eventually identify the best design for a new open architecture to revolutionize the way network en- network setting. Ygineers design, test, and create protocols for routing traffic “Orchestra will greatly ease a network engineer’s burden of over a network. The new architecture, Orchestra, will be able to implementing and evaluating an entire routing system, since it can automatically assemble and test a great variety of routing designs. efficiently explore a much larger design space for routing systems Traditional routing systems have been designed manually by than any single network engineer, ” Yang says. Orchestra will offer network engineers, based on complex collections of objectives, the potential to explore new territory and create routing designs policies, principles and past experiences. Due to limited human that no human has ever considered. The large collection of compo- experience and capability, this design process severely impedes the nent designs in Orchestra will also provide a common platform for evaluation and dissemination of routing research results, Yan says. comparing and evaluating different design choices. In contrast, Orchestra will store a large set of reusable “genes.” ECE’s undergraduate curriculum will also benefit from the Each gene is a small piece of code that implements a particular de- project. The faculty members plan to develop a new networking sign for a small component of a routing system. The correctness lab course in which students design, implement, and test real net- of the “genes” and their mutual compatibility are automatically work testbeds. verified. Orchestra assembles various routing systems from- veri Orchestra is funded by a $150,000 grant through the NSF fied “genes” and then tests them, first in a simulation, then in a real NeTS program. Yang is the principal investigator, and Hsiao and network. Based on the performance of the assembled protocols, DaSilva are serving as co-principal investigators. Orchestra uses evolutionary algorithms to switch and tune designs FINS to accelerate deployment of seamless mobile networks irginia Tech ECEs are developing a framework that is expected periences in deploying large, laptop-based MANETs as part of the to bring closer the day when iPhones, Blackberries, laptops MANIAC Challenge. Vand other mobile devices can talk to each other effortlessly, DaSilva and MacKenzie organized the MANIAC Challenge anywhere in the world. under a prior NSF NeTS grant. In MANIAC, teams formed an ad- This communications ability will involve mobile devices send- hoc network with each team representing a node in a MANET. Or- ing data through each other, without relying on fixed transmission ganizers generated data packets destined for each team. Teams were points like cell towers, according to Allen MacKenzie. judged according to how many of the packets destined for them Unfortunately for mobile, ad hoc network (MANET) technol- they received. To receive a packet, they had to balance selfish inter- ogy, existing network frameworks are based on the assumption that ests with cooperation and get other teams to forward their packets there will be stable routes and established nodes, like cell towers. from node to node by offering to forward other packets in return. “Mobile networks invalidate this assumption and throw traditional For the competition, organizers had to modify routing behav- routing techniques into disarray,” MacKenzie explains. ior in the networking stack to allow participants to view packet One of the biggest hassles for researchers is making major headers and data and to make per-packet forwarding decisions based modifications to networking software: the software protocols con- on their strategy. It was difficult to obtain even partial data without trolling networking (the “stack”) are layered deep within computer access to all the network layers. operating systems. Even tinkering with a single setting can require FINS will resolve these issues. DaSilva and MacKenzie plan a complete rebuild of the computer’s master program – the kernel. to spur adoption of the framework by organizing a new design At present, no replacement for the traditional, fixed network stack competition using FINS. They will also release networking course is available, according to MacKenzie. modules based on the FINS Framework. MacKenzie and Luiz DaSilva have been awarded a $350,000 The FINS framework will be openly shared, allowing re- NeTS grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to de- searchers throughout the world to expand their experimental work velop a framework for modular, extensible, experimental network and build more robust network models. technology. FINS will also be understandable to researchers with less ex- Their Flexible Internetwork Stack (FINS) Framework will le- perience in the field. This will dramatically improve the ability of verage existing protocols, and give researchers real-time control and undergraduate students, novice graduate students and students en- easy access to data. rolled in networking courses to “play” with the network stack. “We FINS will be implemented on hand-held devices, which have want undergraduates to be able to play with the technology: play is the advantage of longer battery life. The team is building the im- critical for developing understanding and innovation,” MacKenzie proved hand-held communications technology based on their ex- says.

34 COMPUTER SYSTEMS RESEARCH Custom radio on demand

esearchers in ECE’s Configurable Computing Laboratory have formance.” developed a RapidRadio framework that helps a user config- RapidRadio can abstract away most of the system architecture Rure a radio receiver on the fly, based on a set of signal char- because of its radio component database and the use of a platform- acteristics. The framework has potential for applications that must independent XML-based radio description file. “A goal of the classify transmitters with unknown modulation types, such as cog- RapidRadio framework is nitive radios trying to avoid interference, or signal intelligence users to reduce the amount of attempting to become silent third-party “listeners.” FPGA knowledge neces- RapidRadio divides the radio creation into two phases: the sary to create a system.” analysis phase and the synthesis phase, according to Adolfo Recio, Preliminary tests were suc- a Ph.D. student who developed the system with Jorge Suris (Ph.D. cessful, transmitting and ’09) and Peter Athanas. “The framework guides the user through receiving signals using the the process of determining the modulation type of an unknown BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, signal, and then builds an FPGA-based receiver capable of demodu- and 32QAM modulation lating that signal,” he explained. “The user needs only to be con- schemes, which encode 1, cerned with some of the signal analysis activities, and the frame- 2, 4, and 5 bits of data into work will automatically identify the parameters of the physical link a single radio symbol. layer and build a receiver for it in a short time.” The framework suc- The system, Recio emphasized, allows a “human in the loop.” cessfully validated the sig- The operator reviews the framework’s decisions and “if the user sees nal constellation, repro- Adolfo Recio and the RapidRadio framework. something obviously wrong, he or she can override that decision grammed the FPGAs appropriately, and properly resynchronized and have the framework do something else, or augment the modu- and received the transmitted symbols. lation scheme database,” he said. The team is building an Internet-controllable LEGO robot FPGAs are excellent candidates for receivers, but because of that carries an electromagnetically reflective foil shield to test the their complexity, designers have traditionally used them to imple- system’s ability to deal with channel attenuation and multipath. ment only what is absolutely necessary and resorted to high-end The project was supported by Harris Corp. and earned a Best Paper processors for important parts of the signal processing, he said. Award at the 2009 International Conference on ReConFigurable “Off-loading the signal processing tasks from the processor per- Computing and FPGAs. mits a better workload distribution and enhances the overall per- Coping with information overload nformation overload is the number details — as much detail as is contained one issue facing analysts who must in the raw data. There are also filtering Imonitor large amounts of data, ac- tools to help sift through the data. cording to ECE’s Joe Tront, who is Cover-VT is designed for analyz- working on a team to create a visualiza- ing many kinds of data, but the initial tion system for data management. “Most application is network security. Using people simply discard portions of the in- an instance of Google Earth, Cover-VT formation until it reaches a manageable can map the IP addresses responsible for level, but this means that vital informa- attacks on a network to their geographic tion may be discarded — leading to in- A real-time visualization of computers locations. correct conclusions,” he said. probing or attacking the Virginia Tech Other possible applications for Tront is working with Virginia computer network. Cover-VT include law enforcement and Tech’s Information Security Laboratory analysis of social networking. In a hos- to develop the Converged Security Visualization Tool (Cover-VT). tage situation, Tront explained, identifying the mobile networked Cover-VT is a web-based application that shows a visual representa- devices in a locked down facility could suggest how many hostages tion of the big picture for a set of data, letting the analyst see trends are being held. in the data. The analyst can then zoom in on any area to see more

35 EMBEDDED SYSTEMS Energy harvesting for self-powered sensors mbedded systems researchers are working with mechanical en- thermoelectric, and vibration gineers from the Center for Intelligent Material Systems and energy harvesting. EStructures (CIMSS) to develop energy harvesting technology High engine temperature for embedded devices. Their goal, according to Dong Ha, is to de- plays both good and bad roles. velop self-powered sensors for hard-to-reach places, such as bridges The good part is that it pro- and helicopter turbine engines. vides an energy source. CIMSS The group is exploring a variety of techniques for harvesting experiments demonstrated the energy from the environment — including miniature windmills, ability to harvest up to 40mW mechanical vibrations, thermal, and solar power. The big challenge, when a thermal harvester is Ha says, is that “our circuit should adapt to the changing environ- placed on a 200°C surface and ment to harvest the maximum amount of energy. A simple example passively cooled with a heat is sunlight, which changes in intensity and direction.” This maxi- sink. The high temperature mum power point tracking presents its own challenge: if the circuit inside the jet engine severely expends too much energy improving its own efficiency, it may con- degrades the performance of sume more than it gains. “We’re dealing with milliwatts here,” Ha circuits, posing a design chal- says. “We have to not just make our circuit efficient at transferring lenge. Bulk CMOS technolo- power, but also make sure it doesn’t use too much itself.” gies fail at temperatures greater than 200°C, so the group plans Bridge sensor nodes to employ silicon-on-insula- Ha’s team is partnering with Dan Inman, director of CIMSS to tor technology and use vari- develop embedded bridge sensor nodes as part of a $14 million grant ous compensation schemes to from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). mitigate adverse effects of high Physical Acoustic Corp. is developing the nodes, which will com- temperature. bine power from miniature windmills and mechanical vibrations. The miniature windmills produce low-voltage dc power, which Infrastructure sensing must be stepped up to 7.5V dc yielding only about 60mW after Ha’s team is also designing a power management system that conversion, explains Ha. The vibration is harnessed via both piezo- will produce about 200 mW, on average, regulated power under electric patches and electromagnetic coils. Piezoelectric patches California sunlight from combined solar and thermal sources. Ha generate 20-40V ac, which must be converted to 7.4V dc to charge is working with Accellent Technologies, which is developing a the battery. structural health monitoring sensor node for infrastructure, and the power management system will provide 18.5V dc to power the sen- Helicopter engine sensors sor node. Energy harvesting may also prove useful in the close confines The ECE team is investigating all aspects of the power manage- of helicopter turboshaft engines. The ECE/CIMSS team is col- ment system including design of a thermal harvester possibly with laborating with Prime Research and Pratt & Whitney to develop active cooling, a battery charging circuit, and voltage boosters and wireless engine sensors that will power themselves through airflow, regulators. On-chip fingerprints atrick Schaumont and Leyla Nazhandali are working with However, the issues of scalability, cost, stability, and threats of Inyoung Kim of statistics to create trustworthy electronic reverse engineering have not been fully investigated, according to Phardware fingerprints based on random variations that occur Schaumont. The ECE professors are working with Kim to develop during chip manufacturing. These random variations between and a comprehensive approach that combines the latest techniques in within chips of the same model have potential application in perva- statistics, architecture design, and circuit design. The team will sive authentication mechanisms. Such physical unclonable functions validate their statistical models by implementing prototype on- (PUFs) can be neither reproduced or tampered with and could serve chip fingerprints on both FPGAs and ASICs. Ultimately, they as unique, reliable, and uniform fingerprints, regardless of environ- hope to create cost-effective physical unclonable functions that are mental conditions such as age, temperature, and electrical variance. unaffected by environmental factors like aging, noise, and voltage.

36 RESEARCH Standardizing crypto evaluations, benchmarks hen evaluating cryptographic algorithms, security is para- explained Schaumont. The benchmarks focus on software perfor- mount, but speed is also important. A fast, secure algorithm mance on personal computers and are not sufficient to predict speed Wis better than a slow, and equally secure one. and power usage on DSPs or FPGAs, or even custom-design ASICs, The problem in evaluating the performance of cryptographic he added. hardware and software is a lack of consistent benchmarks, accord- The Virginia Tech team will lead the benchmarking methods ing to Patrick Schaumont, director of the secure embedded systems for performance of cryptography when implemented as an ASIC. laboratory. Schaumont will also advise the team at the University of Illinois Schaumont and Leyla Nazhandali have received a three-year, that will work on cryptographic software performance on small mi- $544,257 grant from the National Institute of Standards and Tech- croprocessors and computers. nology (NIST) to provide a consistent system for evaluating cryp- The resulting evaluation process will allow users to profile their tographic algorithms in both hardware and software. They are hardware designs in a comprehensive process that covers FPGA as members of a multi-university team that includes George Mason well as ASIC. An important driver application for this project on University and the University of Illinois at Chicago. the short term is the ongoing competition organized by NIST to “Typically cryptographic algorithms have been standardized define SHA-3, the next-generation hash standard. after an open competition overseen by a government agency,” Unlocking the secrets of the Spartan boards esearchers in the Secure Embedded Systems Laboratory are accurately characterize a large population of deployed chips. The capitalizing on the Spartan 3E development kits used by all team also hopes to show that it is feasible to recognize each indi- RECE undergraduates to make a groundbreaking study of how vidual chip from the entire population, which has important ap- variances and the submicron level can affect computations. plications in secure hardware design. The Spartan boards have an FPGA chip that varies slightly To encourage students to bring in their Spartan boards for when compared to the same model chip on another board. Man- testing, the research team is running a contest to give away a game ufacturers have been aware of such die-to-die variations for more console for every 50 students who come in. The group recently than a decade, and designers have been investigating techniques that awarded a Nintendo Wii to the first winner, CPE student Jingyao take such variations into account during the design process, accord- Zhang. The next winner will receive a Sony Playstation 3. ing to Patrick Schaumont, who leads an effort to investigate circuit The project is funded by a $110,000 NSF grant, and will run variability from die-to-die, as well as within each chip. until 2012. Schaumont is spending one year designing and imple- As semiconductor process technology reaches ever smaller fea- menting experiments to measure die-to-die variability, the second ture sizes, the impact of within-die variations has become signifi- year creating experiments to measure variability within the die, and cant, and that has begun to attract research attention, he says. the final grant year on improving the experimental method and an- Schaumont’s team is studying the population of more than 250 alyzing the collected data. The anonymized, collected data will be Spartan boards owned by ECE students. Previous research has stud- made available to the research community for further investigation ied at most 36 FPGAs, limiting the precision and detail needed to of process manufacturing variations. Shedding Sunshine on sensor network hardware design aling Yang and Patrick Schaumont are leading a project to de- cycle-level accuracy) and performance of sensor hardware and soft- velop a hardware/software codesign tool to remove a critical ware in a networked environment. Beyond simulation, the soft- Yroadblock to the success of sensor networks. Sunshine (Sen- ware simulation code used in Sunshine simulation can run over real sor Unified analyzer for Software and Hardware In Networked sensor platforms and the hardware simulation code can be directly Environments) is expected to enable specialized FPGA hardware used to program real FPGA chips. The cross-domain design en- implementations of sensor networks for increased performance and vironment will enable the creation and testing of novel hardware energy savings. architecture and platforms that are unexplored in current designs. “A major roadblock to the success of sensor networks has been “Sunshine may fundamentally transform the relationship be- the prohibitively slow and power-hungry software implementa- tween the sensor network hardware and software communities,” tions of many applications,” says Yang. “Yet, specialized hardware Yang said. “They will have an easy way to efficiently exchange mu- implementations can outperform equivalent software implementa- tual requirements and spread the latest technology advances in each tions by orders of magnitude,” she adds. other’s areas of expertise.” Such evolutionary change will greatly Sunshine will support joint software-and-hardware design, improve the state-of-the-art in sensor network technology, she said. which is a relatively unexplored approach, she said. Yang and Schaumont have a three-year, $256,000 grant from Sunshine will be able to accurately simulate behaviors (with the NSF to support the project.

37 SOFTWARE/DESIGN AUTOMATION Simulated ants get to the hard-to-reach corner states ne of the hardest problems in validating designs is getting the simulated ants. The system to reach all the possible states it will experience during amount of phero- Ouse. Michael Hsiao’s team has developed a new semi-formal mone left by the ants validation technique that gets to those corner cases by drawing in- is directly propor- spiration from nature. The Ant-Colony-Optimization-based state tional to the quality justification is based on how a swarm of ants searches for the best of the search. In addition, the intelligence based on the collective pathway to and from a food source. An individual ant uses its own behavior is capable of avoiding critical dead-end states as well as fast senses to search for the best route, but it also lays down a pher- convergence to the target state. Other researchers have proposed omone track to lead other ants along a good route when found. algorithms using random input or a genetic algorithm, but Hsiao’s As the swarm continues to search, the best route grows thick with team tested their ant-colony-optimization-based algorithm over a pheromone tracks, while the tracks along poorer routes evaporate variety of state justification benchmarks, and found it faster in al- over time. Eventually, the pheromone-guided ants follow only the most every case. “For many circuits, our technique is very effective best path. in reaching hard-to-reach states where previous methods either fail The algorithm simulates this same behavior with a swarm of or require more time,” Hsiao said.

Souping up hardware sim speed andeep Shukla has led a team to improve the simulation per- been directed at making them operate in parallel. And none of the formance of hardware models created in a language called Sys- attempts were ever targeted at a massively parallel platform such as StemC. The team’s new infrastructure, SCGPSim, has garnered a general purpose graphic processor unit.” Shukla said their pre- a best paper award at the 15th Asia and South Pacific Design Auto- liminary experiments showed they were able to speed up SystemC mation Conference (ASP-DAC) in Taiwan. based simulation by factors of 30 to 100 times that of previous per- Shukla and his collaborators said that they were able to dem- formances. onstrate how to speed up the simulation performance of certain Another aspect of their work was the use of a specific program- SystemC-based hardware models “by exploiting the high degree of ming model called Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA). parallelism afforded by today’s general purpose graphic processor It is an extension to the C software language that “exploits the pro- units (GPGPU).” These units have multiple core processors capable cessing power of graphic processor units to solve complex com- of very high computation and data throughput. When parallelism pute-intensive problems efficiently,” Shukla explained. “High per- is applied, it means that the processor units can run various parts of formance is achieved by launching a number of threads and making the simulations simultaneously, and not just as a single sequence of each thread execute a part of the application in parallel.” computations. Their experiments were carried out on an NVIDIA The Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Tesla 870 with 256 processing cores donated to the lab by NVIDIA. Science Foundation helped support this research. In the past, Shukla said, “significant effort was aimed at im- — Lynn Nystrom proving the performance of SystemC simulations, but little had Researchers quantify fingerprint images ynn Abbott and Michael Hsiao are part of an interdisciplin- points, which are small portions of a fingerprint that, when com- ary team investigating fingerprint analysis. Fingerprint analysis bined, can lead to a unique identification. Ph.D. student Nathan Land matching is a critical tool for law-enforcement, especially Short has implemented software that can detect minutia points, for partial (or latent) prints left at crime scenes. “Our work is prob- which is the first step in the research. Graduate student Supratik ably different from most others because of our emphasis on latent Misra is also on the project. fingerprints,” explains Abbott, “latent [partial] prints are often The ECE machine vision effort is part of a two-year, $854,907 smeared or otherwise distorted.” grant from the National Institute of Justice. Fingerprint analysis is based on the recognition of minutia

38 SOFTWARE/DESIGN AUTOMATION 2009 PH.D. DEGREES 2010 AWARDED

Arnedo, Luis Hajjiah, Ali T. Lee, Kyehun Sun, Julu System Level Black-Box Models Design and Analysis of Whis- Coherent Mitigation of Radio Investigation of Alternative for DC-DC Converters pering Gallery Mode Semicon- Frequency Interference in 10- Power Architectures for CPU Committee Chair: Boroyevich, D. ductor Lasers 100 MHz Voltage Regulators Committee Chair: Guido, L. J. Committee Chair: Ellingson, S. W. Committee Chair: Lee, F. C. Ball, Arthur Hugues Thermal and Electrical Con- Hasan, S.M. Shajedul Lehne, Mark Alan Wang, Joshua Kevin siderations for the Design of New Concepts in Front End De- An Analog/Mixed Signal FFT Identification, Analysis, and Highly-Integrated Point-of-Load sign for Receivers with Large, Processor for Ultra-Wideband Control of Power System Converters Multiband Tuning Ranges OFDM Wireless Transceivers Events Using Wide-Area Fre- Committee Chair: Lee, F. C. Committee Chair: Ellingson, S. W. Committee Chair: Raman, S. quency Measurements Committee Chair: Liu, Yilu Buennemeyer, Timothy Keith He, Nannan Li, Jian Battery-Sensing Intrusion Exploring Abstraction Tech- Current-Mode Control: Model- Xu, Jing Protection System (B-SIPS) niques for Scalable Bit-Precise ing and its Digital Application Technology for Planar Power Committee Chair: Tront, J. G. Verification of Embedded Committee Chair: Lee, F. C. Semiconductor Devices Pack- Software age with Improved Voltage Dong, Jingyuan Committee Chair: Hsiao, M. S. Liang, Yan Rating Power System Disturbance Integrated Frequency-Selective Committee Chair: Ngo, K. D. Analysis and Detection Based Jiang, Yan Conduction Transmission-Line on Wide-Area Measurements Three Dimensional Passive EMI Filter Zhou, Ming Committee Chair: Thorp, J. S. Integrated Electronic Ballast for Committee Chairs: Ngo, K. D. T. Advanced System Monitoring Low Wattage HID Lamps & Van Wyk, J. D with Phasor Measurement Dorsey, William Mark Committee Chair: Lee, F. C. Committee Chair: Centeno, V. A. Low Profile, Printed Circuit, Lim, Michele Hui Fern Dual-Band, Dual-Polarized An- Kim, Haesoo Low Temperature Co-fired tenna Elements and Arrays Dynamic Cooperative Commu- Ceramics Technology for Power Committee Chair: Zaghloul, A. I nications in Wireless Ad-Hoc Magnetics Integration Networks Committee Chairs: Lee, F. C. & Van Wyk, J. D. Flory, Isaac (Ike) L. Committee Chair: Buehrer, R. M. High-Intensity Discharge Indus- Petrich, Jan trial Lighting Design Strategies Kim, Kyou Woong Improved Guidance, Navigation, for the Minimization of Energy Exploiting Cyclostationarity for and Control for Autonomous Usage and Life-Cycle Cost Radio Environmental Aware- Committee Chair: Rahman, S. Underwater Vehicles: Theory ness in Cognitive Radios and Experiment Committee Chair: Reed, J. H. Friend, Daniel Hutcheson Committee Chair: Stilwell, D. J. Cognitive Networks: Founda- Kim, Sookyoung Sheng, Honggang tions to Applications GPScheDVS: A New Paradigm Committee Chair: MacKenzie, A. B. A High Power Density Three-lev- of the Autonomous CPU Speed el Parallel Resonant Converter Control for Commodity-OS- Gong, Xiaojin for Capacitor Charging based General-Purpose Mobile Committee Chair: Wang, F. Omnidirectional Vision for an Computers with a DVS-friendly Autonomous Surface Vehicle Task Scheduling Singh, Gaurav Committee Chairs: Wyatt, C. L. Committee Chair: Martin, T. L. Optimization and Verification & Abbott, A. L. Techniques For Hardware Syn- Komali, Ramakant S. thesis From Concurrent Action- Ha, Keunsoo Game-Theoretic Analysis of Position Estimation in Switched Oriented Specifications Topology Control Reluctance Motor Drive Using Committee Chair: Shukla, S. K. the First Switching Harmonic of Committee Chair: MacKenzie, A. B. Phase Voltage And Current Srivastava, Vivek Rajesh Lai, Rixin Committee Chair: Ramu, K. Behavior-based Incentives for Analysis and Design for High Node Cooperation in Wireless Power Density Three-Phase AC Ad Hoc Networks Converter Using SiC Devices Committee Chair: daSilva, L. A. Committee Chair: Wang, F.

39 2009 BRADLEY BRADLEYS2010 FELLOWS Uchenna Matthew Matthew Michael Anyanwu Bailey Carter Fraser BSEE ’09, BSEE/BSCPE/ BSCPE ’09, BSEE ’09, San Jose State Math ’09, University of Virginia Tech University Virginia Tech California, Advisor: Advisor: Allen Advisor: San Diego Anbo Wang MacKenzie Dan Stilwell Advisor: Chris- Research: Research: He Research: topher Wyatt Photonic is exploring wireless commu- Maximizing the surfacing inter- Research: Medical imaging, sensors. The current project nication and reconfigurable val of autonomous underwater with a current focus on local- involves building a harsh devices to develop inexpensive, vehicles by finding an analytic izing brain activity sources environment, high-temperature flexible software-defined radios. cost function. He is a member measured through magneto- sensor able to withstand High-speed random access of the Autonomous Systems & encephalography (MEG) experi- the heat of gas-turbine jet data networking is the ultimate Controls Laboratory (AASCL). ments. The hope is to com- engines, to improve fuel ef- goal. bine the research with fMRI ficiency and precision control. Career aspirations: To col- experiments to learn more Success could lead to the laborate on developing novel about connectivity between development of clean natural solutions as a professor at a regions of the brain. gas technologies. research university.

Nathaniel August Ray A. Bittner, Jr. J. Matthew Carson (BSEE ’98) (BSCPE ’98, MSEE ’01, Ph.D. ’05) (BSCPE ’91, MSEE ’93 Ph.D. ’97) Engineer, Engine Dept. Mixed Signal Design Engineer Microsoft Research Joe Gibbs Racing BRADLEY Advanced Design Group, Intel Redmond, Wash. Huntersville, N.C. Portland, Ore. His team successfully completed Various projects from pre-silicon Kirsten Brown (BSEE ’94) a transition to Toyota engines. validation, to silicon debug, to Chief of Staff to the CEO mixed-signal design. The current MicroStrategy Inc. Ricky T. Castles (BSCPE ’03, ALUMNI project is an all-digital PLL. Alexandria, Va. MSCPE ‘06, MSISE ‘08) Ph.D student, Virginia Tech Steve Bucca JoAnn M. Adams (BSEE ’94) Carrie Ellen Aust (BSCPE ’98) (BSEE ’87, MSEE ’90) Eric Caswell (Ph.D. ’02) Co-owner, Big Fish Design William Barnhart Centreville, Va. (BSEE ’00, MSEE ’02) Mark Bucciero Ross Clay (BSCPE ’09) (BSCPE ’01, MSCPE ’04) Robert J. Adams Raytheon M.S. student Denver, Colo. North Carolina State Univ. (BS ’93, MS ’95, Ph.D. ’98) R. Michael Buehrer (Ph.D. ’96) Associate Professor, ECE Focus on green cloud computing Mark W. Baldwin Associate Professor University of Kentucky (BSEE ’93, MSEE ’05, Ph.D. ’08) Virginia Tech Lexington, Ky. Kevin Cooley (BSEE ’02) Engineer, Dominion Industrial Automation Specialists Charles F. Bunting (Ph.D. ’94) J. Shawn Addington Glen Allen, Va. Hampton, Va. Working in control and protection Associate Professor (BSEE ’90, MSEE ’92, Ph.D. ’96) Oklahoma State University Department Head, ECE of power generation equipment. Cas Dalton (BSCPE ’03) Virginia Military Institute Benjamin Beasley (BSEE ’09) Carey Buxton (Ph.D. ’01) Phillip Danner (BSCPE ’91) Lexington, Va. Associate Electronics Engineer Zeta Associates FBI ERF Bradley A. Davis (Ph.D. ’01) Sarah S. Airey (BSCPE ’01) Quantico, Va. M.S.E.E. in progress at Virginia Daniel Davis (BSEE ’03) Christopher R. Anderson Tech (Northern Va.) Scott C. Cappiello (BSEE ’99, MSEE ’02, Ph.D ’06) (BSCPE ’94) Scott Davis (BSCPE ’00) Assistant Professor, ECE Brian L. Berg (Ph.D. ’01) Senior Software Engineer Director of Engineering and Senior Director United States Naval Academy of Program Management Kollmorgen Annapolis, Md. Product Development Works with the firmware group DTS MicroStrategy, Inc. Carlsbad, Calif. on servo drive development. Matthew Anderson (BSCPE ’04) Agoura Hills, Calif. He is involved in product definition in the R&D department. Brian M. Donlan (MSEE ’05)

40 William C. Michael Ryan Irwin Kevin Jones Headley Hopkins BSCPE ’07, BSEE ’09, BSEE ’06, BSEE ’09, Virginia Tech Virginia Tech MSEE ’09, Virginia Advisors: Advisor: Virginia Tech Commonwealth Luiz DaSilva, Virgilio Advisor: University Allen Centeno Claudio Advisors: MacKenzie Research: da Silva Lynn Abbott, Research: Working on a Research: Signal classification Dennis Hong (ME) Investigating distributed multi- power system synchrophasor- and parameter estimation. Research: Computer vision channel adaptation schemes based tracking three-phase Currently developing distribut- and machine perception meth- for network topologies that will state estimator based on ed detection and classification ods for multi-robot systems. efficiently serve the demands VIrginia Tech’s PMU technology. systems for the new femtocell The goal is real-time coopera- of changing traffic conditions The goal is to estimate system phone networks being de- tive search and surveillance by sharing data between net- state many times per second, ployed by wireless providers. capabilties. Currently develop- work layers that were tradition- rather than the several minutes Experience: Interned with the ing technology for the Virginia ally independent. required by traditional methods MIT Lincoln Lab in summer Tech entries into the MAGIC and use measurements from 2009. 2010 and RoboCup 2010 all three phases instead of to- competitions. day’s single-phase techniques.

Joel A. Donohue (MSEE ’94) Ryan J. Fong Timothy Gredler (BSCPE ’03) Janie Hodges (BSCPE ’01) President (BSCPE ’01, MSCPE ’04) Senior Design and Janlee Services, Inc. Senior Firmware Engineer Development Engineer Spencer Hoke (BSCPE ’03) Professional engineering services ITT Lutron Electronics Software Engineering Team Leader for homeowner, legal, and aca- Elkridge, Md. Coopersburg, Pa. Garmin International demic sectors. Served as advisor Currently in charge of the software Kansas City, Kan. on Tech’s Lumenhaus project. Jayda B. Freibert (BSEE ’98) development team for the EcoSystem lighting product line. Russell T. Holbrook (BSCPE ’03) Thomas Drayer (Ph.D. ’97) Daniel Friend (BSEE, MSEE ’98, Ph.D. ’09) Christopher R. Griger Andrew Hollingsworth (BSCPE ’02) Bradley D. Duncan (Ph.D. ’91) Communication Systems Engineer (BSCPE ’02) Professor, ECE Northrop Grumman Ryan Hurrell (BSEE ’03) University of Dayton, Ohio Daniel Michael Hager (CPE ’08) Bradley H. Gale (BSEE ’97) John Todd Hutson (BSEE ’93) Gregory D. Durgin Alex Hanisch (BSCPE/Math ’03) Madiha Jafri (BSCPE ’03) (BSEE ’96, MSEE ’98, Ph.D. ’00) Robert M. Gardner Associate Professor (BSEE ’03, MSEE ’05, Ph.D. ’08) Abigail Harrison (BSCPE ’04) Daniel A. Johnson (MSEE ’01) Georgia Tech Electric transmission planner Dominion Virginia Power Jennifer J. Hastings (BSEE ’96) Adam Kania (BSEE ’01) W. Ashley Eanes (BSEE ’95) Richmond, Va. Dwayne A. Hawbaker (MSEE ’91) David A. Kapp (Ph.D. ’96) Richard B. Ertel (Ph.D. ’00) Daniel J. Gillespie (BSCPE ’95) Senior Staff Engineer Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab Dimosthenis C. Katsis Brian F. Flanagan Brian Gold (BSEE ’95, MSEE ’97, Ph.D. ’03) (BSEE ’97, MSEE ’98) (BSEE/Math ’01, MSCPE ’03) Matt C. Helton (BSEE ’01) President, Athena Energy Corp. Senior Staff Engineer Benjamin E. Henty (MSEE ’01) Bowie, Md. Kevin P. Flanagan Sun Labs; Redwood City, Calif. Developing new products for the (BSCPE ’00, MSCPE ’01) Research focus is computer archi- alternative energy market and con- Design Engineer Jason Hess (BSEE ’97, MSEE ’99) tecture for enterprise computing. Manager, HW Engineering sulting on defense-oriented power Micron supply designs. Folsom, Calif. Jonathan Graf Cisco Systems Austin, Texas (BSCPE ’02, MSCPE ’04) David Kleppinger (BSCPE ’04) Todd Fleming Director of Trust Technologies H. Erik Hia (BSCPE ’99, MSCPE ’01) (BSEE ’94, MSEE ’96) Luna Innovations Paul A. Kline (Ph.D. ’97) Roanoke, Va. James Hicks (Ph.D. ’03) Graf works on computer security Gregory Kozick (BSCPE ’03) technology for the U.S. DoD. Hugh E. Hockett (BSCPE ’03)

41 2009 BRADLEY 2010 FELLOWS Continued

Nathan Kees Amy Malady David Reusch Benton BSEE ’08, BSEE ’09, BSEE ’04, Thompson Virginia Tech Virginia Tech MSEE ’06, BSEE ’05, Advisor: Har- Advisor: Virginia Tech University of dus Odendaal Louis Beex Advisor: Tennessee- Research: Research: Fred C. Lee Knoxville Developing Classifying Research: methods to signals by Investigating recover the energy that is lost cyclostationarity statistical alternative power electronics Advisor: Michael Buehrer during the exit phase of a methods. Current focus is on topologies and designs to Research: Practical noise mod- railgun projectile, improving ef- how robust her method for improve efficiency and power eling in wireless collaborative ficiency and safety. The project classifying continuous phase density. Currently working on localization networks. In such is funded by the Naval Surface modulation (CPM) signals is to a matrix transformer to reduce networks, nodes work together Warfare Center. varying burst modulation com- loss in high-frequency dc-dc to share information such as binations and lengths, in order power converters for telecom the GPS coordinates of select to improve its application for and computer microproces- nodes, in order to provide signals intelligence and cogni- sors. localization information more tive radio. cost-effectively.

Joseph C. Liberti (Ph.D. ’95) David McKinstry (MSEE ’03) Neal Patwari (BSEE ’97, MSEE ’99) Zion Lo (BSEE ’94) Garrett Mears (BSCPE ’00) Assistant Professor Sr. Software Engineer/Architect Chief Software Architect University of Utah BRADLEY IQNavigator, Denver, Colo. Open Vantage Ltd. His research into “seeing through London, U.K. walls” made it into the popular Daniel L. Lough Leading software development for press this year, and he recently (BSCPE ’94, MSEE ’97, Ph.D. ’01) new mobile entertainment product. received a 2009 Best Magazine Andrew Love Paper award from the IEEE Signal ALUMNI Vinodh Menon (BSCPE ’02) Processing Society. Graduate student, Virginia Tech Continued Michael Mera (BSEE ’03) Cheryl Duty Martin (BSEE ’95) Joseph Allen Payne (BSEE ’00) William B. Kuhn Technical Lead, Electrical Engineer Research Scientist (BSEE ’79, Ph.D. ’96) U.S. Army W. Bruce Puckett (MSEE ’00) Applied Research Laboratories Professor, EECE Picatinny, N.J. University of Texas at Austin Kansas State University Yaron Rachlin (BSEE/Math ’00) Carl Minton (MSCPE ’99) Senior Member of Technical Staff Stephanie Martin (BSEE ’04) Zachary La Celle (BSEE ’09) Draper Laboratory Associate Professional Staff John Morton (MSEE ’98) Junior Engineer Cambridge, Mass. Johns Hopkins University APL; Robotic Research Columbia, Md. Stephen Nash (BSCPE ’03) Rockville, Md. Parrish Ralston Provides electronic warfare Troy Nergaard (MSEE ’02) (BSEE ’06, MSEE ’08) Jeffery D. Laster support to the U.S. military. Graduate Researcher (BSEE ’79, Ph.D. ’97) Virginia Tech Michael Mattern (BSEE ’02) Michael H. Newkirk Principal Technical Manager (BSEE ’88, MSEE ’90, Ph.D. ’94) Christian J. Reiser (Ph.D. ’05) Mentor Graphics, Addison, Texas Christopher Maxey (BSCPE ’02) Principal Professional Staff Responsible for technical Applied Physics Laboratory Lead Communications Engineer programs with Raytheon Eric J. Mayfield(BSEE ’97) Johns Hopkins University MITRE Corporation ECE Advisory Board Member Washington Signal Processing Center Mark A. Lehne (Ph.D. ’08) Patrick McDougle (BSEE ’03) Paul Erik Nguyen Steve Richmond (MSEE ’01) Charles Lepple Brian J. McGiverin (BSCPE ’96) (BSCPE ’98, MSCPE ’99) (BSEE ’00, MSEE ’04) Jamie Riggins (BSEE/BSCPE ’04) Senior Research Engineer John T. McHenry J. Eric Nuckols Pablo Max Robert (Ph.D. ’03) Johns Hopkins University APL (BSEE ’98, MSEE ’90, Ph.D. ’93) (BSEE ’97, MSEE ’99) Laurel, Md. Senior Electrical Engineer U.S. Department of Defense Jason Lewis (BSEE ’99)

42 2009/2010 BRADLEY SCHOLARS

Willis Troy Ben York Phillip Zellner Brittany BS ’07, BSEE ’08, BSEE ’07, Clore MS ’09, University of Virginia Tech CPE ’10 Baylor Alabama Advisor: Fairfax, Va. University Advisor: Masoud Agah Gamma Beta Advisor: Jason Lai Research: Phi; HKN Michael Hsiao Research: MEMS sys- Treasurer Research: He Designing and tems to act Career goals: is currently focusing on equiva- implementing high efficiency as “labs-on-a-chip” to perform Working in cyber security, pos- lence checking of sequential power conversion for renew- analytical chemistry, diagnose sibly secure hardware design. circuits via product machines able energy applications. diseases, and discover drugs. Experience: MITRE Corporation that eliminate size constraints Current focus is on advanced He has developed a first- — working on an intrusion- and allow large circuits to be control methods to soft-switch ever, single-mask, single-etch tolerant server system. tested, thus improving circuit converters in solar panel process to create buried 3-D verification speed. installations. channels in silicon substrate. Previous techniques required Thomas multiple steps and were only Cooper 2-D. EE ’10 Oak Ridge, Tenn. HKN; SEC; Thomas W. Rondeau Graham Stead (BSCPE ’93) Christian Twaddle (BSCPE ’01) IEEE; Intra- (BSEE ’03, MS ’06, Ph.D. ’07) Program Manager, ITT Corporation mural sports: Douglas R. Sterk (MSEE ’03) Center for Communications Columbia, Md. Galileo Engineering Community Research, Princeton, N.J. CPES Lab Manager Has published a new book, Ph.D. student, Virginia Tech Matthew C. Valenti Research: Developing dynamic Artificial Intelligence in Wireless (BSEE ’92, Ph.D. ’99) spectrum access techniques Communications. Scott Stern (BSEE ’93) Associate Professor, CS & ECE Why ECE: “I was driven by West Virginia University Program Manager the desire to understand Thomas M. Rose (MSEE ’96) Compunetix Morgantown, W.V. Senior Engineer Monroeville, Penn. how these systems actually Radar and Sensors Group, Boeing Manages development efforts Wesley Wade (BSEE ’93) work, especially cellular radio University City, Mo. for mission-critical conferencing Kristin Weary (BSEE ’03) networks.” Working with fire control radar for systems. the F-15 Eagle. Electrical Engineer Samuel S. Stone (BSCPE ’03) Bechtel-Knolls Atomic Jon Scalera (MSCPE ’01) Power Laboratory Anne (Palmore) Stublen (BSEE ’91) Niskayuna, N.Y. David Amy Schneider (BSCPE ’03) Newark, Del. Leading project to support shipping Mazur specimens out of the lab. EE ’11 Steven Schulz (MSEE ’91) Seema Sud (Ph.D. ’02) Pittsburgh, Pa. Michael L. Webber (MSEE ’03) David C. Schroder (BSEE ’05) Ethan B. Swint IEEE; U.S. Senior Engineer; Ramu Incorporated Jason Wienke (BSEE ’02) Soccer referee Jeff Scruggs (MSEE ’99) Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech Thomas Williams (BSEE ’00) Research: a Kashan Shaikh (BSCPE ’02) David Tarnoff (MSEE ’91) signals pro- Assistant Professor William J. Worek cessor to analyze and display Raymond A. Sharp (BSEE ’02) Computer & Information Science (BSCPE ’99, MSCPE ’02) power profiles of everyday East Tennessee State University Rebecca Shelton (MSEE ’08) Kai Xu (BSEE ’95) electronics. Most memorable: “There is Jacob Simmons (CPE ’08) Daniel Tebben (Ph.D. ’06) Jason Jon Yoho (Ph.D. ’01) nothing that you cannot do Design Engineer Roger Skidmore Jerry Towler (BSEE ’08) if you put your mind to it at (BSCPE ’94, MSEE ’97, Ph.D. ’03) MSEE student Picosecond Pulse Labs Unmanned Systems Lab Boulder, Colo. Tech.” Jeff Smidler (BSEE ’98) Virginia Tech Gregory A. Zvonar (MSEE ’91) Amanda (Martin) Staley Rose Trepkowski (MSEE ’04) (BSEE ’99, MSEE ’01) Richard Zimmerman (BSCPE ’07)

43 DONORS TO ECE During the Fiscal Year 2009 Alumni

Although every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this report, we acknowledge that errors may have occured. If your name was omitted or listed incorrectly, please accept our sincere apologies and send corrections to the Office of University Development at 540/231-2801.

J. Shawn & Adele K. Addington John Dettra William Charles & Nancy M. Jane Prey Glenn Michael & Nithin Dhananjayan Jorch Christopher Goodman Ranson Rebecca S. Allen Steve Otho Dixon Michael Francis Kalanick Charlene V. Reeves Jack Bowles & Carol S. Amis Edwin Lindsey & Mary Beth L. Gregory Kubovcik Gerald F. Ricciardi Brian Douglas Bailey Dove Joseph Edward & Maryann W. Arman Roshan Rudolph Richard, Jr. & W. Douglas & Peggy (“Jean”) J. Kusterer Daniel M. & Pamela Sable Angela P. Banks Drumheller Ting-Pui Lai Karl David & Susan Salnoske Andrew Beach Ben DuPont William Kenneth Lamp Estate of James Hamilton Estate of Doris C. Belak William Ashley Eanes John Wolfe & Patricia Lane Schaub T. Wayne & Colleen F. Belvin G. Stephen & Debbie J. Ellis Peggy Carol Lee James Franklin & Nancy J. Brian LaRoy Berg Walter Lane & Dorothy Epperly Estate of Clovis Emanuel & Schooler Jerry Bischof Samuel Macin & Jeffra D. Rosa H. Linkous Margaret Ficklen & Thomas A. Steven Parker, Jr. & Kristi L. Estill Michael Lee & Cheryl C. Oatts Schubert PE Black Gilbert Lawrence & Jewel C. John Keith, Jr. & Pauline R. Estate of Edwin F. Sharpe Gregory Edward & Laura J. Faison Loftis D. Wayne & Dorothy Snodgrass Bottomley Chris Flohr Paul Mailhot Michael Elliot Sockell William Jay Boyer Robert William Freund Edith Dole & Ronald L. Marsh R. Knox & Lori D. Stacy Robert Francis & Connie E. James K., Jr. & Diana George John Rouse, Jr. & Sandra Eric Brian Stogoski Bruce Michele Urban & Mark J. Marshall Harvey Lee & Agnes Sutton Robert Lawrence & Greenwood Robert & Beverly T. Maslow Douglas Andrew Teeter & Caroline W. Calder James Thomas Griffin Brent Owen McClain Terri L. Stull Leslie Haden & Pauline H. Paul Stephen & Mary Hamer William Rex & Joyce McConnell Ryan William Thomas Christian Jesse T. & Valorie R. Hancock Matthew D. Miller C. Hyde & Gloria J. Tucker Floyd N. & Shirley I. Coppage Eva S. Hardy Jeannette Marcella & David L. Martha Tullis Ernest Dyson & Jackie A. Kurt Michael & Christine Hinds Mills Aaron Brian Waller Crack J. B., Jr. Esq. & Shirley B. Michael G. Morris Kristin M. Weary Kenneth Emil & Lisa Cutler Hoofnagle Stewart L. & Mary L. Ocheltree Evan Michael Weiner Angela Lieberman & James W. Bin Huang Lowell Thomas & Carolyn James Austin & Carla V. Wilding Dalton Hsien Lu & Hui-Lein P. Huang Overby Naveen Yadlapalli LCDR Richard Todd & Jennifer Kenneth Lee & Edward L. Steven Mark, CPA & Elizabeth Joseph Willard & Patricia L. A. Davies Johnson M. Parker Yoder George Stephenson & Kathryn Edward Andrew Jones Troy K., Jr. & Annette Preddy Y. Davis

ECE Friends Corporate Donors William Allen Blackwell & Gerald G. Lessmann Electronic Magnetic Power Solutions Sherry L. Blackwell David M. & Luwanna S. Lofe General Electric Multilin, Inc. Stanley Honda Michael L. Miles Maxtena James A. & Kathleen M. Eder Scott A. Norton TechSmith Corporation Howard D. Frisch & Edith L. Schulz The Warfield Foundation, Inc. Amy R. Flax James S. Thorp John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

44 CORPORATE&INDUSTRIAL AFFILIATES

CPES Partners L-3 Communications, Power Oshkosh Truck Corporation National Instruments Principal Plus Members Paragon Inc. Pacific Scientific EKD Rincon Research Corporation AcBel Polytech, Inc. Microsoft Corporation Phoenix International Rockwell Collins ALSTOM Transport NetPower Technologies, Inc. Plexim GmbH Regal Beloit SRC, Inc. Chicony Power Nippon Chemi-Con Corp. Rockwell Automation – U.S. Army CERDEC Technology Co., Ltd Northrop Grumman Allen-Bradley Zeta Associates, Inc. Crane Aerospace & Electronics Shindengen Electric Rockwell Automation – Delta Electronics Mfg. Co., Ltd. Kinetix Space @ VT Emerson Network TDK-Lambda Corporation Rockwell Automation/Dodge/ Affiliates Power Co., Ltd The Boeing Company Reliance Electric Northrop Grumman Corp. GE Global Research Toyota Motor Corporation S&C Electric Company Orbital Sciences Corporation Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. Universal Lighting Technolo- Simplis Technologies, Inc. VPT, Incorporated International Rectifier gies, Inc. (formerly PEW) Synopsys, Inc. Intersil Corporation Vacon, Inc. TECO Westinghouse Future Energy Linear Technology Tektronix, Inc. Electronics Lite-On Technology Corporation Affiliate Members Trane Company Center Monolithic Power Systems American Superconductor VPT Energy Systems Ansoft Corporation VPT, Inc. Corporate Affiliates National Semiconductor Corp American Power Conversion NXP Semiconductors AO Smith Corporation Whirlpool Corporation Caterpillar, Inc. Yaskawa Electric America, Inc. Ansoft Richtek Technology Corporation Azure Dynamics Rolls-Royce Danfoss Drives DRS Power and Control Wireless @ VT Danfoss-Turbocor Siemens Corporate Research Delphi Power Systems Technologies, Inc. Affiliates Texas Instruments Electric Power Emerson Motor Company Analog Devices TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. Research Institute Ford Motor Company Applied Signal Technology, Inc. Industrial Technology Fuji Electric Advanced DRS Technologies Principal Members Research Institute Technology Co., Ltd. Harris Corporation Analog Devices Institute of General Dynamics ITT Communications Systems Eaton Corporation Nuclear Energy Research Land Systems Qualcomm, Inc. – Innovation Center National Semiconductor GM Advanced Technology Rincon Research Corporation GHO Ventures, LLC Northrop Grumman Corp Center Samsung Telecommunications Groupe SAFRAN Powerex Hamilton Sundstrand America Maxim Integrated Products Tatung System Technologies Hitachi, Ltd. SRC, Inc. SEW EURODRIVE Total Energy Company Honeywell International Corp Thales Communications GmbH & Co KG Visteon Corporation Kohler Company Zeta Associates, Inc. Vollrath Associate Members LEM USA, Inc. ABB, Inc. - Corporate Research Magnetek, Inc. WICAT-VT BAE Systems Controls, Inc. Miller Electric Mfg. Co. Partners Crown International Milwaukee Electric Applied Signal Technology, Inc. Cummins, Inc. Tool Company Center for Advanced Hitachi Computer MPC Products Corporation Engineering and Research Peripherals Co., Ltd. National Instruments Qualcomm, Inc. Intel Corporation Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. Harris Corporation Johnson Controls Oak Ridge National Laboratory Intel Corporation

45 HONORS&ACHIEVEMENTS Books published Peter Athanas Tom Hou co-edit- Lamine Mili Arun Phadke was editor of ed the textbook was co-editor of and James Thorp Reconfigurable Cognitive Radio Economic Market published Com- Computing: Archi- Communications Design and Plan- puter Relaying for tectures, Tools, and Networks: ning for Electric Power Systems, Power Systems, and Applications, Principles and John Wiley & Springer, 2009. Practices; Academic Press/ Wiley-IEEE Press, Sons, 2009. Elsevier, December 2009. December 2009. Charles Bos- S. Chhabra, O. Kilic and A.I. tian and Thomas Ira Jacobs published The Krishnan Ramu Zaghloul published Co-Chan- Rondeau (Ph.D. Life and Times of Otto K ottO, published a nel Interference in Satellite 2007) have a Pocahontas Press, 2009; and Greek translation Links Utilizing Frequency Re- new book, Artifi- Most Peoples Not So Lucky: A of Electric Motor use, VDM Verlag, 2009. cial Intelligence Memoir, Lulu.Com, 2009. Drives: Modeling, in Wireless Communications, Analysis and M.J. Al-Saleh Artech House, 2009. Control, Klidarithmos Publish- and A.I. Zaghloul ers, 2009. He also published published Direct Permanent Magnet Synchro- Sensor-to-Satellite nous and Brushless DC Motor Links, VDM Ver- Drives, CRC Press, 2009. lag, 2009. Honors + awards Conference chairs Jaime De La Ree received Krishnan Ramu delivered IEEE Peter Athanas co-chaired the andria, Virginia, in December the William E. Wine Teaching IES Distinguished Lectures International Workshop on Ap- 2009. Award. in Malaysia (in two places) in plied Reconfigurable Comput- Patrick Schaumont was pro- December, 2009. ing, 2009. Charles Bostian was honored gram co-chair of the Seventh with the title “Alumni Distin- Anbo Wang was named Fred C. Lee was Conference ACM-IEEE International Confer- guished Professor Emeritus” a Fellow of the Society of Chair of the International ence on Formal Methods and by the Board of Visitors. Photo-Optical Instrumentation Power Electronics and Motion Models for Codesign (MEMO- Engineers (SPIE). Control Conference (IPEMC), CODE), 2009. James Thorp has received the May 2009, Wuhan, China. title of “Hugh P. and Ethel C. Dan Stilwell was invited to Anbo Wang co-chaired the Kelly Professor Emeritus” from give two lectures at the GkmM Tom Martin was one of three U.S.-China Workshop on Opti- the Board of Visitors. Summer School in Germany, technical program chairs of cal Fiber Sensor Research, sponsored by the German NSF. the Smart, E-textile Solutions Development and Applications, Dushan Boroyevich is the symposium at the Industrial Wuhan, China, July, 2009. He 2010 President-Elect of The College of Engineering Fabrics Association Interna- was co-chair of the U.S.-China the IEEE Power Electronics honored Wayne Scales as tional (IFAI) Expo in September Workshop on Bio-inspired Society. He is also an Elected outstanding researcher, Leslie 2009. Smart Systems: Materials, Member-at-large of the IEEE Pendleton as outstanding Mechanics, Control, and Sen- Power Electronics Society Saifur Rahman was chair of teacher, and Masoud Agah as sor Innovation, Dalian, China, AdCom. the IEEE Asia Pacific Power outstanding assistant profes- July, 2009. Wang co-chaired sor. and Energy Conference in Peter Athanas was the invited China, March 2010. “Optical Fiber Sensors”and keynote of the International “Photonic Microdevices/Micro- Conference on Field Program- Lamine Mili was chair of the structures for Sensing” of the mable Logic and Applications, NSF-VT Resilient and Sustain- SPIE Symposium on Defense, held in Prague, Czech Repub- able Critical Infrastructures Security and Sensing, Florida, lic, 2009. (RESIN) workshop held in Alex- April, 2009.

46 Editorships Tamal Bose is associate edi- Mohammed Eltoweissy is the Journal of Electronic Test- Saifur Rahman was series tor of the Journal of Electrical guest co-editing a special ing: Theory and Applications; editor of the IEEE Smart Grid and Computer Engineering, issue of IEEE JSAC on Mission and the Journal of Embedded Expert Now online tutorial Hindawi Publications and Critical Networking. Computing. series in 2009. associate editor of IEICE Transactions on Fundamentals Tom Hou is associate editor T.C. Poon is Division Editor Sandeep Shukla is associate of Electronics, Communica- of IEEE Transactions on Mobile of Applied Optics. He is Lead editor for IEEE Transactions on tions and Computer Sciences, Computing. Feature Editor of “Digital Computers; IEEE Embedded Japan. Holography and 3-D Imaging” Systems Letters; IEEE Design Michael Hsiao is associate and “Acoust-Optics,” Applied & Test; and Elsevier Journal on Mike Buehrer is associate editor of ACM Transactions on Optics. He is also Focus Issue Nano Communication Net- editor of IEEE Transactions on Design Automation of Electron- Editor of “Digital and Com- works. Wireless Communications and ic Systems. He serves on the puter-Generated Holography,” associate editor of IEEE Trans- editorial boards of the IEEE Chinese Optics Letters. actions on Communications. Design & Test of Computers; Alumni honors Laura Bottomley (BSEE ’84, of Engineering Distinguished Noel N. Schulz (BSEE ’88, Joseph Vipperman, Jr. (BSEE MSEE ’85) received a Presi- Alumnus. Martin became the MSEE ’90) was elected pres- ’62) was inducted into the Vir- dential Award for Excellence Chancellor of NCA&T State ident-elect of the IEEE Power ginia Tech College of Engineer- in Science, Mathematics and University last summer. and Energy Society, and ing Academy of Engineering Engineering Mentoring. Excellence. Joe May (BSEE ’62) was Miroslav M. Begovic (Ph.D. Harold L. Martin Sr. (Ph.D. inducted into the Virginia Tech ’89) was elected treasurer. ’80) has been named the College of Engineering Acad- 2010 Virginia Tech College emy of Engineering Excellence.

Patents awarded

“Methods of forming buffer “Hybrid Control Methods for “Phase Compensation Driving “Generalized Cancellation of layer architecture on silicon Digital Pulse Width Modulator Scheme for Synchronous Recti- Inductor Winding Capacitance and structures formed thereby,” (DPWM),” J. Li, D.S. Ha, Y. Qiu, fiers,” D. Fu, F.C. Lee. (Continuation-in-part),” S. Wang M. Hudait. M. Xu, and F.C. Lee. and F.C. Lee. “Hybrid Filter For High Slew “Tensile Strained NMOS Tran- “Multiphase Voltage Regulator Rate Output Current Applica- “Holey Optical Fiber with sistor Using Group III-N Source/ Having Coupled Inductors with tion (Divisional App.),” M. Xu, Y. Random Pattern of Holes and Drain Regions,” M. Hudait. Reduced Winding Resistance,” Ren, F.C. Lee, A.P. Schmit. Method for Making Same,” M. Xu, Y. Dong, F.C. Lee. G. Pickrell, D. Kominsky, “Dopant Confinement in the “Hybrid Control Methods for R. Stolen, J. Kim, A. Wang, Delta Doped Layer Using a “Input Current Sensing AVP Digital Pulse Width Modulator A. Safaai-Jazi. Dopant Segregation Barrier in Method for Future VRM,” M. (DPWM),” J. Li, D.S. Ha, Y. Qiu, Quantum Well Structures,” Xu, F.C. Lee, J. Zhou. M. Xu, F.C. Lee. “Multi-cavity Fabry-Perot M. Hudait. Interferometric Thin-Film Sen- “Co-Fired Ceramic Inductor with “Hybrid Filter for High Slew sor with Built-in Temperature “Selective High-K Dielectric Variable Inductance, and Volt- Rate Output Current Applica- Compensation,” Y. Zhang, Film Deposition For Semicon- age Regulator Having Same,” tion,” M. Xu, Y. Ren, F.C. Lee, K.L. Cooper, A. Wang. ductor Device,” M. Hudait. M. Lim, J.D. Van Wyk. A.P. Schmit. “High-Quality Detection Based “Method and Apparatus for Dy- “Common Mode Noise Reduc- “Cancellation of Inductor Wind- tion using Parasitic Capaci- on Sequential Interference namically Connecting Modules ing Capacitance,” Shuo. Wang Cancellation Techniques,” tance Cancellation,” S. Wang, in a Programmable Device,” and F.C. Lee. M.A. Nguyen, A.I. Zaghloul. C. Patterson. F.C. Lee.

47 ECE FACULTY A. Lynn Abbott Luiz DaSilva Allen MacKenzie T.C. Poon Associate Professor Associate Professor Assistant Professor Professor FACULTYIllinois ’89 Kansas ’98 Cornell ’03 Iowa ’82 Masoud Agah William A. Davis Majid Manteghi Timothy Pratt Assistant Professor Professor Assistant Professor Professor Michigan ’05 Illinois ’74 UCLA ’05 Birmingham ’68 Peter Athanas Jaime de la Ree Tom Martin Saifur Rahman Professor Associate Professor Associate Professor Joseph Loring Professor Brown ’92 & Assistant Department Head Carnegie Mellon ’99 Virginia Tech ’78 Pittsburgh ’84 Scott Bailey Paolo Mattavelli Sanjay Raman Associate Professor Steven Ellingson Professor Professor Colorado ’95 Associate Professor University of Padova ’95 Michigan ’97 Ohio State ’00 Joseph Baker Kathleen Meehan Krishnan Ramu Assistant Professor Louis Guido Associate Professor Professor Michigan ‘01 Associate Professor Illinois ’85 Concordia ’82 Illinois ’89 William T. Baumann Scott F. Midkiff Binoy Ravindran Associate Professor Dong S. Ha Department Head Associate Professor Johns Hopkins ’85 Professor Professor UT Arlington ’98 Iowa ’86 Duke ’85 A. A. (Louis) Beex Jeffrey H. Reed Professor Thomas Hou Lamine Mili Willis G. Worcester Professor Colorado State ’79 Associate Professor Professor UC Davis ’87 Polytechnic Univ. ’98 Liege ’87 Dushan Boroyevich Sedki Riad American Electric Power Michael Hsiao Leyla Nazhandali Professor Professor Professor Assistant Professor Toledo ’76 Virginia Tech ’86 Illinois ’97 Michigan ’06 J. Michael Ruohoniemi Tamal Bose Chao Huang Khai D.T. Ngo Associate Professor Professor Assistant Professor Professor Western Ontario ’86 Southern Illinois ’88 Princeton ’05 Caltech ’84 Ahmad Safaai-Jazi Robert P. Broadwater Mantu Hudait Hardus Odendaal Professor Professor Associate Professor Associate Professor McGill ’78 Virginia Tech ’77 Indian Institute of Science ’99 Rand Afrikaans ’97 Wayne Scales Gary S. Brown Mark Jones Marius Orlowski Professor Bradley Distinguished Professor Professor, VMEC Chair Cornell ’88 Professor of Electromagnetics Duke ’90 Tuebingen ’81 Illinois ’67 Patrick Schaumont Jason Lai Jung-Min Park Assistant Professor Michael Buehrer Professor Associate Professor UCLA ’04 Associate Professor Tennessee ’89 Purdue ’03 Virginia Tech ’96 Sandeep Shukla Fred C. Lee Cameron Patterson Associate Professor Virgilio Centeno University Distinguished Associate Professor SUNY Albany ’97 Associate Professor Professor Calgary ’92 Virginia Tech ’95 Duke ’74 Daniel Stilwell JoAnn Paul Associate Professor C. Robert Clauer Douglas Lindner Associate Professor Johns Hopkins ’99 Professor Associate Professor Pittsburgh ’94 UCLA ’80 Illinois ’82 Kwa-Sur Tam Paul Plassmann Associate Professor Claudio da Silva G. Q. Lu Professor Wisconsin ’85 Assistant Professor Professor Cornell ’90 University of California Harvard ’90 San Diego ’05

48 ECE INDUSTRIAL ADVISORY BOARD William H. Tranter Lasse Boy N. Clausen Bradley Professor Postdoctoral Associate Miroslav Begovic ’89 Dave Marsell ’88 of Communications Professor Chief Technologist Alabama ’70 Richard W. Conners School of Electrical and Pressure Systems, Inc. Associate Professor Emeritus Computer Engineering Joseph G. Tront & Research Associate Georgia Institute of Technology Jeannette Mills ’88 Professor Professor Senior Vice President SUNY Buffalo ’78 Rick Brisbin Gas Business Operations Carl B. Dietrich Intellectual Property & Planning Anbo Wang Research Assistant Professor and Patent Attorney Baltimore Gas and Electric Clayton Ayre Professor Dalian ’89 Aditya S. Gadre Christopher DeMarco Behnam Moradi Research Associate Professor, Electrical and Senior Member Yue (Joseph) Wang Computer Engineering of Technical Staff Grant A. Dove Professor Feng Ge University of Wisconsin- Micron Technology Maryland ’95 Postdoctoral Associate Madison Michael Newkirk ’88, ’90, ’94 Chris Wyatt Jianmin Gong Robert Fulton ’82 Principal Professional Staff Associate Professor Research Scientist Vice President The Johns Hopkins University Wake Forest School Business Development Applied Physics Laboratory of Medicine ’02 S.M. Shajedul Hasan Space Systems Group Research Scientist Orbital Sciences Corp. Lew Roufberg ’87 Yong Xu Supervisor, Spacecraft Power Assistant Professor Carvel Holton Roger Gambrel Electronics Caltech ’01 Senior Research Associate Senior Director The Johns Hopkins University Engineering Simulation Applied Physics Laboratory Jason Xuan Evan Lally and Training Associate Professor Research Associate Rockwell Collins Dan Sable ’85, ’91 Maryland ’97 President and CEO Timothy Newman Truls Henriksen ’90 VPT, Inc. Yaling Yang Postdoctoral Associate Consultant, Ecto, LLC Assistant Professor Eric Starkloff Illinois ’06 Arun G. Phadke Mike Hurley Vice President Product University Distinguished Program Manager Marketing for Test Professor Emeritus Satellite Programs National Instruments Instructors & Research Professor Naval Research Laboratory Kristie Cooper Dennis Sweeney ’86, ’92 Instructor Apoorva Shende Michael Keeton ’71 Engineering Specialist Postdoctoral Associate Senior Program Director Aerospace Corporation Leslie K. Pendleton Orbital Science Corporation Director of Undergraduate Yi Shi Timothy Winter ’81 Student Affairs Research Scientist Stephen Larson ’90 Vice President Manager, St. Louis Area Market Development Gerald Reid James S. Thorp Schneider Electric Electronic Systems Instructor Hugh P. and Ethel C. Kelly Northrop Grumman Corp. Professor Emeritus John Logrando Jason Thweatt & Research Professor Director, Electrical Power Brandon Witcher ’01, ’03 Instructor Systems Engineering Senior Member Brentha Thurairajah Lockheed Martin of Technical Staff Research faculty Postdoctoral Associate Space Systems Company Sandia National Laboratory Ashwinn Amanna Dan Weimer Gino Manzo Research Associate Research Professor Advisory Board Chair Charles W. Bostian Director, Microelectronics Wensong Yu Technology and Products Alumni Distinguished Research Scientist Professor Emeritus Manassas Site Executive & Research Professor Amir I. Zaghloul BAE Systems Research Professor Xia Cai Postdoctoral Associate Baigang Zhang Research Associate

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