News

Bienert joins CU Boulder’s Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Bienert joins CU Boulder’s Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/15/2024 - 00:00

Charles Ferrer

The Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at CU Boulder is excited in welcoming Nicole Bienert to our teaching and research community.

Bienert is joining as an assistant professor in the electromagnetics research area starting fall 2024. Welcome, Nicole!

Bio: Nicole Bienert received her PhD and master’s in electrical engineering from Stanford University and her Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering with a minor in physics from the Schreyer Honors College at The Pennsylvania State University.

Throughout her education, Nicole interned at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and after graduation, she joined Google as an equitable imaging researcher. She then returned to academia as a postdoc at the University of Southern California.

Research Focus: Bienert is a computational imaging researcher in environmental radar remote sensing and computational photography. Her innovations in signal processing, inverse theory and instrumentation enable 2D-4D imaging at a quality, clarity, resolution, or spatial extent impossible with conventional imaging methods. Her work earned the 2020 IGARSS Prize Paper Award and an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.

What are you most excited about joining CU Engineering?
In returning to academia from industry, I am most excited about working with students again. I look forward to inspiring curiosity, creating career opportunities and promoting student success and well-being. The CU Engineering student body strikes me as a group passionate about innovation, exploration, creation, having an impact and the outdoors. This mindset resonates with me and forms an energy I look forward to using to help propel students along a successful educational journey.

Why CU Boulder?
My focus on environmental sensing requires easy access to diverse landscapes (e.g. mountains, forests, deserts and farmlands) which is provided in abundance by Boulder’s location. Additionally, I am an avid skier and outdoors enthusiast, so I look forward to exploring the beautiful Rocky Mountains and joining the outdoors community of Boulder.

CU Boulder is a world-class institution, particularly renowned for its electromagnetics/RF program. As an electromagnetics/RF researcher, I look forward to expanding on this successful program with distributed radar sensing and computational photography.”

Nicole Bienert is joining as an assistant professor in the electromagnetics research area starting fall 2024. Welcome, Nicole!

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CU Boulder wins $20M to lead National Quantum Nanofab facility

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 22:04:09 +0000

CU Boulder wins $20M to lead National Quantum Nanofab facility Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/20/2024 - 16:04

A new facility will give researchers from Colorado and across the country a space to think up and design devices that tap into the world of atoms and even smaller things—potentially leading to new sensors, ultra-fast computer chips and more.

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CU Boulder's electrical and computer engineering graduate program rank top 20 nationally

Anonymous — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 20:37:12 +0000

CU Boulder's electrical and computer engineering graduate program rank top 20 nationally Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 06/18/2024 - 14:37

The electrical and computer engineering programs at CU Boulder are among the top 20 engineering graduate programs according to the U.S. News and World Report for 2024-25. In the specialty rankings, computer engineering is No. 16 and electrical engineering is No. 17 among public universities.

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Air quality detection and filtration technology to support Native American communities

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 21:38:31 +0000

Air quality detection and filtration technology to support Native American communities Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 06/13/2024 - 15:38

Dragan Maksimovic, professor of electrical, computer and energy engineering and Shelly Miller, professor of mechanical engineering are collaborating to develop air quality technologies that detect and filtrate air for Native American communities through a NIST-sponsored project.

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Tamara Silbergleit Lehman earns IEEE Rising Star Service Award for advancing computing technologies

Anonymous — Tue, 28 May 2024 18:59:23 +0000

Tamara Silbergleit Lehman earns IEEE Rising Star Service Award for advancing computing technologies Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/28/2024 - 12:59

Charles Ferrer

Assistant Professor Tamara Silbergleit Lehman recently received the 2024 Technical and Conference Activities Rising Star Service Award from the IEEE Computer Society, the largest global organization engaging computer scientists and engineers.

The Rising Star Service Award is presented annually to an individual who is 10 years or less into their career and has contributed to advancing computer science and technology.

Lehman, who joined the Department of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering at CU Boulder in 2019, focuses on all aspects of computer security from the microarchitectural perspective and has led efforts to make computer architecture more inclusive. Her research interests span a wide array of topics at the intersection of computer architecture and security, aiming to design secure processors that are robust against numerous microarchitectural vulnerabilities.

“Receiving this award encourages me to continue doing the work to improve diversity and inclusion within the computer architecture community,” Lehman said. “I hope this service can help make improvements in the diversity of the community.”

Lehman organized the Career Workshop for Inclusion and Diversity in Computer Architecture (CWIDCA) for five years, which is the longest running workshop of its kind among the computer architecture community. The CWIDCA — in conjunction with MICRO, the top-tier conference in computer architecture research — has supported about 30 students annually for its ninth year in creating networks of diverse researchers across companies, universities and countries. She collaborated with fellow co-organizers, including Valentina Salapura of Google, Alan Bivens of IBM, Professor Hyeran Jeon from University of California Merced and Professor Elaheh Sadredini from University of California Riverside.

As part of her nomination, Professor Yan Solihin from the University of Central Florida remarked, “Tamara goes above and beyond to ensure her role has an impact in the community. It is clear from her impressive record of service and leadership that she truly cares about the success of our community.”

“I want to thank my friend and mentor Professor Iris Bahar for supporting me throughout the years,” said Lehman, “and Professor Yan Solihin for allowing me to serve in the organizing committee as the Travel Awards chair for the 50th Anniversary of the International Symposium on Computer Architecture.”

Lehman has earned numerous awards, including Outstanding Mentor for the Discovery Learning Apprenticeship and Outstanding Service for Inclusion and Diversity at CU Boulder, as well as the DARPA Risers award for her research that is advancing national security. In 2023, she was invited as a keynote speaker for the International Conference on Engineering Applications of Neural Networks in Spain.

She earned a PhD from Duke University in computer engineering. While completing her PhD, Lehman worked two consecutive summers at Intel Labs with the architectural security team in 2015 and 2016, which produced a patent titled, “Cryptographic Cache Lines for A Trusted Execution Environment.” She completed her master’s degree in computer engineering at Duke University and earned a bachelor’s of science from the University of Florida in industrial and systems engineering. Lehman holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Computer Science and is a member of the Colorado Research Center for Democracy and Technology.

She has authored 11 publications for major conferences, including the Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, Parallel Architectures and Compilation Techniques and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. Additionally, she has published in several journals, with one article winning the Best Paper award and another receiving an honorable mention in Micro Top Picks.

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Al Gasiewski presented IEEE award for remote sensing research

Anonymous — Tue, 07 May 2024 14:48:38 +0000

Al Gasiewski presented IEEE award for remote sensing research Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 05/07/2024 - 08:48

Charles Ferrer

Professor Al Gasiewski was presented the Golden Florin award from the IEEE in recognition for his more than 40 years of outstanding contributions in passive microwave remote sensing research.

“I am grateful to the dozens of colleagues, advisors and students who throughout the past decades have made the progress in environmental remote sensing possible,” said Gasiewski, “and my family has been a constant source of support in my endeavors to better protect our planet.”

Based in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering at CU Boulder, Gasiewski has been a CU Boulder faculty member since 2006. He is the founding director of the Center for Environmental Technology, a laboratory which develops innovative observing systems for environmental applications.

Environmental research for global future

“It is more important than ever that we strive to take care of our environment and maintain professional opportunities for individuals globally to study remote sensing science,” said Gasiewski.

He added that his research provides a unique means of observing the large-scale environment of the planet.

“Microwave remote sensing provides us critical data about the atmosphere, oceans, ice sheets, land masses from forests to cities and numerous other related environmental realms,” he said. “It permits us to make informed decisions from the individual to the societal level that best protect our shared future.”

Gasiewski’s research has focused on sensing the natural environment using microwaves. He has developed a variety of microwave radiometers for weather and climate monitoring, including polarimetric radiometers used for ocean wind sensing, millimeter and submillimeter wave radiometers for measuring atmospheric temperature, water vapor, clouds, precipitation, imaging radiometers for sea ice and soil moisture mapping.

He recently developed a new radio detection method that promises to provide precise microwave measurements from weather satellites amidst the increasing amount of radio noise from wireless communications systems. His work is foundational to our system for global weather forecasting using satellites.

Gasiewski is an IEEE Fellow and member of the American Meteorological Society, American Geophysical Union and the International Union of Radio Scientists. His past awards include the IEEE GRSS' Education award in 2017 and the IEEE GRSS’ Outstanding Service Award in 2006.

About the Golden Florin Award
The Golden Florin Award is jointly sponsored by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and the Italian Centre for Microwave Remote Sensing. Recipients are national and international members of the GRSS. The Golden Florin is awarded every two years to researchers who have distinguished achievements and scientific breakthroughs in microwave radiometry in remote sensing.

Photo: Al Gasiewski awarded the 2024 Golden Florin award by the IEEE GRSS and the Italian Centre for Microwave Remote Sensing.

Professor Al Gasiewski was presented the Golden Florin award from the IEEE in recognition for his more than 40 years of outstanding contributions in passive microwave remote sensing research.

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ECEE students earn college undergraduate awards 2024

Anonymous — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

ECEE students earn college undergraduate awards 2024 Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/22/2024 - 00:00

Charles Ferrer

Two exceptional students from the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering (ECEE) have earned 2024 Graduating Student Awards from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

These honors are awarded to seniors who are nominated by faculty, staff or fellow students for their outstanding contributions and achievements.

ECEE students will celebrate graduation on Thursday, May 9, 2024 from 4-6 p.m. at the Business Field.

Two exceptional students from the ECEE department have earned 2024 Graduating Student Awards from the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

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PhD students earn major NSF graduate research fellowships

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 20:31:58 +0000

PhD students earn major NSF graduate research fellowships Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/16/2024 - 14:31

Charles Ferrer

Three Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering graduate students have received 2024 National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships for their promising quantum and metameterial antennas research.

This year, the NSF awarded 27 students from CU Boulder, including 18 from the College of Engineering and Applied Science with the 2024 graduate research fellowship, a prestigious award recognizing students in a wide variety of STEM disciplines, exploring some of the most pressing issues of our time.

Each recipient will receive three years of financial support, including an annual stipend of $37,000, as well as professional development and research opportunities.

Three Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering graduate students have received 2024 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships for their promising quantum and metamaterial antennas research.

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Innovation unveiled: ECEE students to showcase design projects

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Innovation unveiled: ECEE students to showcase design projects Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/09/2024 - 00:00

Charles Ferrer

Fourteen student teams from the Department of Electrical, Computer & Energy Engineering (ECEE) will showcase their capstone design projects at the upcoming Engineering Projects Expo 2024 on Friday, April 26.

This year, team projects impact critical areas in sustainability, assistive technologies, communications, microgrid power distribution and new sensing technologies.

The ECEE Capstone Design course is a two-semester course for every senior in the department. �鶹��Ժ collaborate as teams to design a product from concept to prototype. Each team partners with a sponsoring organization to define a product, determine suitable technology options and create a design from proof to final custom hardware and software.

Through these hands-on experiences, students gain essential career skills into practice as professional engineers.

Capstone Design, led by Scholar in Residence Eric Bogatin, has 10 industry sponsors and four faculty sponsors. Their organization sponsors include: Medtronic, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Colorado Space Grant Consortium, Line Vision, Microchip Technologies, SparkFun, Fieldline, LUUM, Quality Life Plus and Augustus Aerospace.

Projects you will see at the Expo 2024 include:

Team The Band is designing and building a new product for SparkFun Electronics — a home air quality monitor. A small sensor box will sit in your home, and an app on your smartphone will give you access to the current air quality and a recorded history. Features in the user interface will be suitable for the casual user and the scientist inside all of us.
Team Trailblazers is working with Quality of Life Plus, a nonprofit organization focused on providing increased quality of life to veterans. They are building a mobile sensor cart to help assess the quality of a hiking trail for the disabled. A sensor suite monitors grade, tilt, roughness and other hiking aspects, geotags the data and uploads the trail metrics to a mapping database which can be accessed by hikers.
Team Formula 10 is designing and building an automatic room air purifier working off of a 48-volt microgrid. This system will monitor the indoor air quality, such as particle count, temperature, humidity and CO2 level. When it exceeds a threshold, the purifier activates a fan with a filter and UV purification lights. Since it is powered by a microgrid, the efficiency of the power delivery system is monitored and new power conversion technologies are demonstrated.
Team JALATT is working with JPL to design and build a self-aligning connector system for autonomous, self-assembling CubeSats. A custom test bed will help evaluate the contact resistance, leakage and signal bandwidth for power and data flow between CubeSats. This test bed will initially be demonstrated with a prototype connector design, which JPL will use to test future connector technologies.
In collaboration with the Colorado Space Grant Consortium, Team Oval is designing a prototype Luna Sat sensor network. This is a collection of small, solar-powered circuit boards that will self-assemble into a wireless network of sensor nodes. This initial version will be used on Earth and distributed as a kit to 9-12th grade students around the world as part of the Great Lunar Expedition for Everyone (GLEE) project. This will give students a chance to explore remote data acquisition experiments.

In the ECEE Department, student teams are collaborating with the following faculty members:

Distinguished Professor Dragan Maksimovic is sponsoring a project on air quality monitoring and controls.
Assistant Professor Marco Nicotra is sponsoring a project on using a laser link to control a remote drone.
Professor Al Gasiewski is sponsoring a project on remote sensing to map atmospheric emissions in the k-band
Distinguished Professor Zoya Popovic is sponsoring a project on transmitting useful power to a ground station from a drone.
Professor Scott Diddams is advising a team using an atomic clock to stabilize a grandfather clock.

Check out all student teams on April 26 from 2 to 5 p.m. at the CU Indoor Practice Facility!

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Zoya Popovic elected to the National Academy of Inventors

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Zoya Popovic elected to the National Academy of Inventors Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/08/2024 - 00:00

Charles Ferrer

Zoya Popovic

Distinguished Professor Zoya Popovic is among 162 inventors named 2023 fellows of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). Election as a fellow in the academy is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors.

Popovic, a leading researcher in high-efficiency, low-noise microwave and RF engineering, was elected for her “prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.”

“Our patents and patent applications cover a broad range of topics such as medical sensors, quantum measurements, communication electronics, radar electronics and waste-to-fuel conversion,” said Popovic.

One of her recent patents measures internal body temperature through a thermometer that is non-invasive and wearable. Other patents Popovic has developed harness ambient radio frequencies to charge batteries or power vehicles wirelessly.

“One of the reasons for such a diverse set of applications is that our research is in applied electromagnetics, which is one of the foundations of electrical engineering,” said Popovic. “Understanding true fundamental electromagnetics is a very powerful and practical tool.”

Popovic, Distinguished Professor and Lockheed Martin Endowed Chair in RF Engineering, is a recipient of the 2001 Hewlett-Packard and American Society for Engineering Education Terman Medal for combined teaching and research excellence. She was the first woman to receive the International Radio Science Union (URSI) Issac Koga Gold Medal and also a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

“My goal is to transfer my knowledge to all my students enabling them to benefit from our excellent engineering programs at CU Boulder and continue to contribute as experts throughout their careers,” she said.

The NAI Fellow program has 1,898 fellow worldwide representing more than 300 universities and governmental and nonprofit research institutes.

Distinguished Professor Zoya Popovic is among 162 inventors named 2023 fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. Election as a fellow in the academy is the highest professional distinction awarded solely to inventors.

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