<August 2012 | College of Engineering Today Newsletter | TTU
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News

Lin
Lin
Jiang
Jiang

Center for Nanophotonics Receives $2 Million Grant

Drs. Hongxing Jiang, Edward E. Whitacre Jr. Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Jingyu Lin, Linda F. Whitacre Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering, were recently awarded a $2 million grant to develop the next generation of solid-state high-energy lasers with intended military defense uses.

The five-year grant is from the High Energy Laser Multidisciplinary Research Initiative program supported by the High Energy Lasers-Joint Technology Office and Army Research Office.

The project aims to advance the development of nano-scale, chip-size materials that could lead to the creation of significantly more compact and more powerful lasers for use by the military in missile defense systems.


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NSF REU
NSF REU

Departments of Computer Science and Industrial Engineering Host NSF REU Site

From robotics to smart grid security, 10 students from Texas Tech and universities across the country have spent 10 weeks this summer working on a variety of topics as part of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site Program.

This is the final year of Texas Tech's three-year grant from NSF that brings undergraduate students to campus to participate in ongoing research programs. As part of the program, the students have been paired with a faculty mentor as well as a graduate student to assist them through the research process. They also took part in numerous professional development seminars covering topics such as applying to graduate school and ethics in research.

The faculty advisors for the program are: Drs. Susan Urban, professor of industrial engineering, Michael Shin, associate professor of computer science, Mohan Sridharan, assistant professor of computer science, and Joseph Urban, professor of industrial engineering.


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Lie
Lie
Dallas
Dallas

ECE Professors Create Early Warning System for Fall-Risk Patients

Drs. Donald Lie, Keh-Shew Lu Regents Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and an adjunct professor in the Department of Surgery at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) and Tim Dallas, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, along with a team of clinicians from the TTUHSC: Drs. Ron Banister, Andrew Dentino, Tam Nguyen, and Steven Zupancic, are collaborating with Texas Instruments on multidisciplinary research.

The team is developing technology that can predict when a person might fall — even days in advance. Technology like this could benefit not only the geriatric community but patients with balance issues from disorders such as Parkinson’s, epilepsy or dementia.

The researchers have created a prototype wireless sensor, small enough to be clipped to a belt, which analyzes posture and gait, and sends an alert when there is a break in routine. A team of medical clinicians receives the real-time patient data through wireless sensors made up of accelerometers and gyroscopes. Their goal is to identify changes to posture and gait through sophisticated algorithms, analyzing a pattern that would indicate risk.

This research on “fall-risk identification and assessment using body worn sensors” has recently been approved by a TTUHSC Institutional Review Board, which is a committee formally designated to approve biomedical and behavioral research involving humans. From there, the technology could prove useful in various capacities, from the geriatric community to vestibular (balance) research.


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Faculty News

Karp
Karp

Karp Receives IEEE Rigas Award

Dr. Tanja Karp, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, recently received the Hewlett-Packard/Harriett B. Rigas Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Education Society.

The award recognizes outstanding female faculty members who have made significant contributions to electrical and computer engineering education through excellence in teaching, encouraging and supporting increased participation of women in electrical and computer engineering, demonstrated scholarship and research, development of educational technology which enhances student learning, and/or service to the engineering profession.

Karp will receive the award at the 2012 Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference in Seattle, Wash. in October 2012.The FIE Conference is the major international conference about educational innovations and research in engineering and computing.


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Grants and Contracts

July 17, 2012 – August 16, 2012

Chemical Engineering

  • Dr. Micah J. Green was awarded $60,122 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "EAGER: The Verge of Percolation in Nanoparticle Networks."
  • Dr. Harvinder S. Gill was awarded $148,386 by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The title of the proposal was "Engineering Pollen Grains into Novel Antigen-transporters for Oral Immunomodulation."
  • Dr. Karlene A. Hoo was awarded $182,040 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "IPA: Program Director for the Partnerships for Innovative and the Accelerating Innovation Research Programs."

Center for Multidisciplinary Research in Transportation

  • Dr. Moon-Cheol Won was awarded $7,500 by the TX Dept of Transportation. The title of the proposal was "Technical Support for Rigid Pavement and Concrete Materials Branch 46-IMTIA018."

Center for Nanophotonics

  • Drs. Hongxing Jiang and Jingyu Lin were awarded $200,000 by the U.S. Army RDECOM. The title of the proposal was "Erbium-doped GaN Crystals as High Energy Laser Gain Medium."

Electrical and Computer Engineering

  • Dr. Changzhi Li was awarded $49,000 by the Semiconductor Research Corporation/UT Dallas. The title of the proposal was "High Accuracy All-CMOS Temperature Sensor with Low-voltage Low-power Subthreshold MOSFETs Front-end and Performance-enhancement Techniques."
  • Dr. Hamed Sari-Sarraf was awarded $74,000 by the National Library of Medicine. The title of the proposal was "Human-machine Biomedical Image Segmentation with Hardware Assistance and Web Browser Interface."
  • Dr. Yu-Chun D. Lie was awarded $60,000 by the Semiconductor Research Corporation/UT Dallas. The title of the proposal was "P12079 Ultra-lowpower Analog Front-end IC Design for Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) Devices."

Mechanical Engineering

  • Dr. Chang Dong Yeo was awarded $169,376 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "BRIGE: Microwear Mechanism of Carbon Film under Extremely High Speed Surface Contact Accounting for Phase Transition and Oxidation."
  • Dr. Jingjing Qiu was awarded $175,000 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "BRIGE: Scalable Bottom-up Synthesis of Well-defined Diamond Nanowire/Nanotube Arrays."
  • Dr. Jingzhou Yang was awarded $24,999 by the Ntl Ins of Occupational Safety & Health. The title of the proposal was "Computer-aided Predictive Models for Respirator Fit and Comfort-Phase III."

Smart Grid Energy Center

  • Dr. Vittal S. Rao was awarded $6,000 by the National Science Foundation. The title of the proposal was "REU SUPPLEMENT: MRI-Development of Real Time Simulator for Smart Grid Systems Integrated with Distributed Renewable Energy Sources."

Water Resources Center

  • Drs. William A. Jackson and Audra N. Morse were awarded $101,494 by the National Aeronautics & Space Administration. The title of the proposal was Optimization and Evaluation of a Membrane Aerated Nitrification Denitrification Bioreactor for Sustainable Human Habitation."
Events

See a full listing of the college's events on the Engineering Master Calendar.



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