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Open-source hardware: a growing movement to democratize IC design

Dr. Mehdi Saligane, a leader in the open-source chip design community, was among the first researchers to fabricate a successful chip as part of Google’s multi-project wafer program.

Microelectronics researchers plan new initiative, enhanced collaboration to aid semiconductor industry

Leaders in microelectronics from across Michigan Engineering gathered to plan the formation of Michigan’s Advanced Vision for Education and Research in Integrated Circuits, with an eye to building industry partnerships and strengthening US leadership.

Dennis Sylvester Elected to National Academy of Inventors

Sylvester’s inventions in low-power chip design have led to multiple startup companies and products found in hundreds of millions of devices.

Broadening the engineering perspective through coastline conservation in Middle Earth

As part of the U-M Engineering Global Leadership (EGL) Honors Program, Electrical Engineering undergrad Nora Desmond traveled There and Back Again to experience the sustainability culture of New Zealand.

Streamlining home assessments for energy justice

In a partnership with Ecoworks, Pecan Street, and Jefferson East, Prof. Johanna Mathieu is helping create a better process for Detroit homes to benefit from decarbonization, electrification, and renewable energy integration.

New non-invasive optical imaging approach for monitoring brain health could improve outcomes for traumatic brain injury patients

The SCISCCO system could better monitor brain and organ metabolism, helping to diagnose concussions, monitor cerebral metabolism in traumatic brain injury patients, and gauge the response of organs to treatments in an operating or emergency room scenario.

ECE Rising Star Tanya Das helps shape nationwide science policy to address climate change and more

Das (BSE EE 2011), who previously served the Biden Administration as the Chief of Staff of the Office of Science at the U.S. Department of Energy, is currently the Associate Director of Energy Innovation at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Prof. Zetian Mi selected as IEEE NTC Distinguished Lecturer

Mi’s talk will focus on how to break the efficiency bottleneck of micro-LEDs and deep UV optoelectronics, critical to continued advances in virtual/augmented reality, water purification, sterilization, and more

Dennis Sylvester named Edward S. Davidson Collegiate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Alumni profile: A conversation with Rich Uhlig

A Michigan engineer, Intel VP, and research lab director, Rich Uhlig is CSE’s Alumni Merit Award Winner for 2022.

Miniature and durable spectrometer for wearable applications

A team led by P.C. Ku and Qing Qu have developed a miniature, paper-thin spectrometer measuring 0.16mm2 that can also withstand harsh environments.

Alum Paul Debevec honored with Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award for inventing a new kind of movie magic

Debevec’s groundbreaking imaging work revolutionized the film and television industry, helping create the special effects seen in Spider-Man 2, Avatar, The Hobbit, Blade Runner 2049, Gravity, The Mandalorian, and many more.

Best paper for a low-power ADC circuit for brain-machine interface applications

Euisik Yoon’s team, led by Sungjin Oh, developed a low-power neural recording front-end circuit to interface with state-of-the-art neural probes.

Vikram Verma talks the value of engineering and leadership to society as the 2022 ECE Alumni Impact Award winner

Verma credits his distinguished 30-year executive career with leading technology companies, including Savi Technology, Lockheed Martin and 8×8 Inc., to a combination of education, leadership, and luck.

Jesse Codling wins Best Presentation award for sensors that help protect these little piggies in their pens

Known affectionately as “The Sh*tty Project,” Codling, an ECE PhD student, monitors the vibrations in pig pens to track the health of the piglets and predict when they’re in danger.

The Key to Superior Teaching Performance in Engineering

Get tips that will help you improve your teaching and connection with engineering students – from renowned educator Fawwaz Ulaby

ECE at the center of Celebrate Invention: 2022

Wei Lu talked about his innovations as the 2022 Distinguished University Innovator, followed by a panel discussion about the University’s role in fueling new high tech companies in the area.

Mike Flynn named Fawwaz T. Ulaby Collegiate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Flynn is one of the world’s premier scholars of analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits and systems, analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), and other interface circuits.

Kamal Rudra receives IEEE EDS Masters Student Fellowship

Rudra works in the area of solid-state and nanotechnology, and has managed to acquire a broad range of experience in different research settings

Kaleo Roberts receives AISES scholarship for research on monitoring corn fields using remote sensing

Roberts’ work could help improve the management of corn fields, which is important for food production, biofuel, and industry raw material.

Yakshita Malhotra honored for micro-LED research that could define the future of automotive displays

Malhotra’s work on micro-LEDs could lead to more efficient, higher resolution automotive displays capable of supporting augmented reality applications.

Zetian Mi elected Fellow of APS

Mi’s pioneering contributions in III-nitride quantum nanostructures have contributed to the development of photonic and clean energy devices.

Louise Willingale elected Fellow of APS

Willingale is a plasma science leader who is currently helping launch the ZEUS laser facility.

Breakthrough in green micro-LEDs for augmented/mixed reality devices

Prof. Zetian Mi’s team are the first to achieve high-performance, highly stable green micro-LEDs with dimensions less than 1 micrometer on silicon, which can support ultrahigh-resolution full-color displays and other applications.

New free textbook: Foundations of Applied Electromagnetics

Kamal Sarabandi’s new textbook is ideal for first-year graduate students wanting a solid foundation in electromagnetic theory.

Seeing electron movement at fastest speed ever could help unlock next-level quantum computing

New technique could enable processing speeds a million to a billion times faster than today’s computers and spur progress in many-body physics.

Prof. David Blaauw inducted into MICRO Hall of Fame

Blaauw and his group are also recipients of numerous best paper awards and honors, including the MICRO Test of Time award

Neophytos Charalambides receives Best Poster Award for research in the area of Data Science

The research can be applied to a wide range of big data applications that rely on the multiplication of two matrices in linear algebra.

Wei Lu named Distinguished University Innovator of the Year

Prof. Wei Lu is honored with the Distinguished University Innovator of the Year Award for his pioneering efforts in the development and commercialization of novel electrical devices.

MRacing smokes competition with their first electric race car

At Formula SAE Michigan, MRacing defended their number one U.S. title and placed second overall.

SPARK Electrifies Motorcycle Racing

With their newest electric motorcycle, the student team took second and third place at the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association Formula Lightning Series competition.

CHIPS and Science Act: Implications and Opportunities

The CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 promises to revitalize the U.S. semiconductor industry. Dennis Sylvester offers his perspective on what it means for ECE.

A view into what’s really happening during gene editing for Precision CRISPR

Prof. Somin Lee and her research group developed a way to reduce trial and error in gene editing by getting a look at the process in real time

U-M discovery leading to LASIK is a Golden Goose

The AAAS Golden Goose awards highlight federally funded breakthroughs that go on to bring important benefits to the lives of regular people.

ECE welcomes four new faculty for 2022/23

With research expertise in quantum information, optics and systems; innovative wireless systems; and biomedical AI – these faculty are striving to improve how people live and work in the world.

First light soon at the most powerful laser in the US

The ZEUS laser at the University of Michigan has begun its commissioning experiments

Walking and slithering aren’t as different as you think

New mathematical model links up slithering with some kinds of swimming and walking, and it could make programming many-legged robots easier.

Photosynthesis copycat may improve solar cells

The new approach moves energy efficiently and could reduce energy losses converting light into electricity.

The ethical implications of tech, and why it matters for engineers

Through the Ford School’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, ECE PhD student Trevor Odelberg is studying how engineers can take better responsibility for the way their research impacts society.

Next generation neural probe leads to expanded understanding of the brain

The hectoSTAR probe, with 128 stimulating micro-LEDs and 256 recording electrodes integrated in the same neural probe, was designed for some stellar brain mapping projects

ZEUS Joins International Community of Extreme Light Virtuosos

As a member of the X-lites program, ZEUS joins an international community of extreme light labs working together to advance laser science for the benefit of society

Designing Synthetic Human Gut Microbiome with AI

Prof. Al Hero was interviewed and gave a presentation about his research using machine learning to improve our understanding of the human gut

Ester Bentley receives Impact award for her research with the goal of GPS-free navigation

Bentley presented her research as an NDSEG Fellow. She is working to make smaller, more affordable high accuracy navigation-grade gyroscopes.

Community-builder Leon Pryor takes Detroit’s FIRST Robotics program to new heights

Having excelled in careers at Microsoft, Amazon, and now Meta, the alum and renowned video game engineer co-founded The Motor City Alliance to make Detroit a powerhouse for FIRST Robotics teams

MRover crowned champions of the University Rover Challenge

From autonomously navigating rocky terrain to testing soil for signs of life, the Michigan Mars Rover team bested their competition and took first place at the international competition.

Kamal Sarabandi named Fawwaz T. Ulaby Distinguished University Professor of EECS

Prof. Sarabandi has distinguished himself as an educator, researcher, and inventor with wide-ranging impact.

Toward manufacturing semitransparent solar cells the size of windows

A peel-off patterning technique could enable more fragile organic semiconductors to be manufactured into semitransparent solar panels at scale.

Task Force report on grid stability concepts receives IEEE PES Prize Paper Award

The rapid growth of renewable energy led to an international task force to study its impact on the stability of worldwide power systems.

Solar-powered chemistry uses carbon dioxide and water to make feedstock for fuels, chemicals

Producing synthesis gas, a precursor of a variety of fuels and chemicals, no longer requires natural gas, coal or biomass.

Machine learning begins to understand the human gut

The new computer model accurately predicts the behavior of millions of microbial communities from hundreds of experiments, an advance toward precision medicine.

2022 IEEE APS R. W. P. King Award recognizes new theory in computational electromagnetics

Patel and Michielssen developed the Wigner-Smith time delay matrix for electromagnetics.

Lauren Cooper awarded Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship from SPIE

Cooper, an ECE PhD student, works to advance fiber lasers, which could help provide the bursts for next-generation particle accelerators and advance attosecond science.

Kamal Rudra awarded Laser Technology, Engineering and Applications Scholarship from SPIE

Rudra, an ECE Master’s student, specializes in solid state and nanotechnology, and his work could help shape the future of AR/VR technologies.

In Digital Signal Processing, students experiment with sensors for creative projects

Students created everything from a Wordle helper to a tool for melanoma detection to a program that identifies different marine species based on their underwater song.

Elaheh Ahmadi receives 2022 ISCS Young Scientist Award for seminal contributions to MBE N-polar (Al,Ga,In)N and (Al,Ga)2O3 heterostructures

Ahmadi has received numerous young faculty honors and awards, and has advanced the state of the art in her field.

Yongmo Park awarded IBM PhD fellowship to support his research on in-memory computing systems

Park works with Prof. Wei Lu on advancing resistive random-access memory (RRAM, or memristor) devices to accelerate AI computing.

Solar car “Aevum” to test solutions ahead of next World Solar Challenge

An unusual two years in the making, the car is equipped with sensors to explore how the team can improve its design further before the 2023 race.

Emulating impossible “unipolar” laser pulses paves the way for processing quantum information

Quantum materials emit light as though it were only a positive pulse, rather than a positive-negative oscillation.

Amy Brooks awarded Staff Excellence Award for extraordinary efforts in difficult times

In addition to stepping up in remarkable ways during the past two years, Brooks has been known for her collaborative initiative, technical competence, and empathy to those in need.

Arch W. Naylor: In Memoriam (1929 – 2022)

Arch Naylor helped introduce the developing field of information and control engineering at Michigan.

Greg Wakefield, master of interdisciplinary everything, retires

Greg Wakefield retires after a 36-year career that helped shape the look of interdisciplinary research and collaborations at Michigan, especially between the arts and sciences.

Overcoming the efficiency cliff of red micro-LEDs for virtual/augmented reality

Prof. Zetian Mi leads a team that created highly-efficient red micro LEDs suitable for augmented and virtual reality.

Atkins chairs National Academies report on speeding discovery with automated research workflows

Prof. Emeritus Daniel Atkins III chaired and Prof. Al Hero served on a National Academies committee that published a new report describing the impact of artificial intelligence and automated research workflow technologies in propelling research and scientific discovery.

Engineering tough

ECE alum Linda Zhang has the daunting task of bringing America’s bestselling vehicle into the electric age.

Designing large neural codes for the next generation of communication systems

PhD candidate Mohammad Vahid Jamali won a Best Paper award at IEEE ICC for his work on Product AutoEncoders, which could help shape future generations of wireless networks, IoT, and autonomous systems.

Thomas Ryan awarded SMART Scholarship to support his studies on defense technologies

Ryan is an electrical engineering undergrad interested in military systems and devices.

Jeffrey Fessler voted 2022 HKN Professor of the Year for ECE

Prof. Fessler has received numerous teaching awards throughout his career, and this is his third time as HKN Professor of the Year

Duncan Madden receives NDSEG Fellowship for research that could revolutionize communication and radar systems

Madden works to enable full-duplex communication systems, which could double the usable bandwidth or data rate.

2022 graduating class reflects on their Michigan memories

We asked graduating EECS students to share memories and reflections from their Michigan experience to commemorate their achievement in their own way.

ECE graduate students recognized by 2022 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship program

ECE doctoral students Rachel Newton and Austin Lin were selected for this prestigious fellowship, and Evelyn Ware was recognized with an honorable mention.

ECE Expeditions goes hybrid

Students visited the new KLA headquarters in Ann Arbor and attended virtual presentations by NVIDIA and NASA.

Graphene-hBN breakthrough to spur new LEDs, quantum computing

Study uncovers first method for producing high-quality, wafer-scale, single-layer hexagonal boron nitride

HKN earns Outstanding Chapter Award

The student honor society is again recognized for their outstanding efforts, this time for the 2020-21 academic year.

Louise Willingale named Kavli Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences

Willingale was a featured speaker at the 2022 Kavli Frontiers of Science U.S. Symposium, where she presented on high intensity lasers, including ZEUS.

Douglas Teeter (1964 – 2022): In Memoriam

Dr. Doug Teeter (PHD EE 1988 1992) is remembered by his doctoral advisors at Michigan as an outstanding researcher, friend, and family man.

2022 EECS Undergraduate Student Awards

These students are recognized by the department for their outstanding scholarship, research, service, leadership, and entrepreneurship.

2022 College-wide awards for EECS undergraduate students

Students throughout the College of Engineering are eligible for these awards; ten went to EECS students for outstanding scholarship, leadership, and service.

Stefany Escobedo awarded Towner prize for her outstanding contributions as a Graduate Student Instructor

Escobedo overhauled the instruction of Embedded Control Systems during the COVID-19 pandemic and permanently improved the course.

Aaditya Hambarde awarded Towner prize for his outstanding contributions as a Graduate Student Instructor

Hambarde is recognized for his tremendous dedication to students and for the creation of new course resources for Introduction to Signals and Systems.

Quantum mentoring for the greater good

Doctoral student Mohammad Aamir Sohail mentored an international team looking for a quantum solution to optimize mobile medical services

Teaching Machine Learning in ECE

With new courses at the UG and graduate level, ECE is delivering state-of-the-art instruction in machine learning for students in ECE, and across the University

Immune to hacks: Inoculating deep neural networks to thwart attacks

The adaptive immune system serves as a template for defending neural nets from confusion-sowing attacks

New textbook provides hands-on guide for learning about chaotic dynamics and electronic circuits

The book was co-authored by ECE Master’s student Wesley Joo-Chen Thio and Professor Emeritus Julien Sprott of U Wisconsin.

Alireza Ramyar awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for his research on power processing architectures for improved sustainability

Ramyar’s research focuses on how power and energy can be transformed, extracted from clean power generation, and stored effectively and sustainably.

Touheed Anwar Atif awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for his research on quantum information and quantum computing

Atif’s coding framework addresses quantum information network coding problems and has helped uncover new insights into the world of quantum information.

Ashley Jian receives Barbour Scholarship to further her research on high-power electronics

Jian works to improve the efficiency of high-power electronics for better energy security and sustainability.

Anna Stuhlmacher awarded Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for her research that could help integrate renewable energy sources into the power grid

Stuhlmacher is working to optimize the interaction between the power distribution network and the drinking water distribution network to improve the sustainability, flexibility, and resiliency of both systems.

New textbook provides streamlined guide for undergrads studying Signals and Systems

The textbook, authored by Prof. Stéphane Lafortune, covers the main material students need to know for continuous-time signals and systems with a focus on linear time-invariant systems and their response to different classes of input signals.

Kamal Rudra receives SVCF Scholarship to pursue his studies in semiconductors and photonics

Rudra is a first year master’s student in the area of solid state and nanotechnology

Subhajit Mohanty awarded Richard and Eleanor Towner Prize for Distinguished Academic Achievement

Mohanty’s research is focused on advancing high electron mobility transistors for next generation wireless technologies.

Ashley Jian awarded Marian Sarah Parker Prize from the College of Engineering

Jian’s research is focused on improving the efficiency of high-power electronics, which is important for energy security and sustainability.

ECE alum Dave Babicz pioneered the lab kits that became a staple for at-home engineering courses

The lab kits used in our Analog Circuits course during the pandemic were created by Babicz, Director of Engineering at Analog Devices Inc., and fellow colleagues back in 2015 for the purpose of improving equity in engineering education.

ECE alum Mihir Sheth receives Young Innovator Award from Innovate UK for making a medical device that weans patients off ventilators quicker

Sheth is the co-founder of Inspiritus Health and has developed a simple to use, non-invasive medical device that keeps patients’ muscles engaged when they are on a ventilator to prevent muscle atrophy.

Qing Qu receives CAREER award to explore the foundations of machine learning and data science

His research develops computational methods for learning succinct representations from high-dimensional data.

High School students discover “The Joy of Coding” in new ECE online course

In a new online course designed to improve access to engineering education for all, students learn how coding powers apps such as Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, and Siri.

2022 EECS Outstanding Achievement Awards

The EECS Department has honored four faculty for their sustained excellence in instruction and curricular development, distinguished participation in service activities, or for their significant achievements in scholarly research.

Anthony Grbic receives David E. Liddle Research Excellence Award

Grbic is a world leader in the development of metamaterials and metasurfaces, and his pioneering work has led to ultra-thin electromagnetic devices with revolutionary capabilities.

Stephen Forrest receives H. Scott Fogler Award for Professional Leadership and Service

Forrest’s remarkable impact as a leader complements his profound impact as an engineer working for a carbon-neutral future.

Robert Dick receives Monroe-Brown Foundation Education Excellence Award

Dick has provided outstanding contributions to undergraduate and graduate education in the area of embedded systems.

‘Exciton surfing’ could enable next-gen energy, computing and communications tech

A charge-neutral information carrier could cut energy waste from computing, now that it can potentially be transported within chips.

Cindy Finelli receives Trudy Huebner Service Excellence Award

Finelli has provided leadership and vision in the area of engineering education for over 20 years and was responsible for establishing and building the Engineering Education Research graduate program.

Al-Thaddeus Avestruz receives CAREER Award to advance sustainable energy storage

Using retired electric vehicle batteries, the project plans to enable widespread and equitable access to sustainable power and energy through sustainable energy storage.

Three ECE students awarded Rackham fellowships

Cheng-Hsun Lu, Shih-Chi Liao, and Jiale Zhang have been awarded the Rackham International Students Fellowship/Chia-Lun Lo Fellowship.

New understanding of neurons in the hippocampus: they’re all the same

A longstanding collaboration between engineers and neuroscientists leads to new insights into how neurons work in the hippocampus.

Research on modeling time-variant systems earns Brockett-Willems Outstanding Paper Award

Prof. Peter Seiler co-authored the paper that focuses on reachability analysis for a variety of systems, including aircraft control and autonomous vehicles.

Ashley Jian is working to improve the efficiency of high-power electronics for better energy security and sustainability

Jian received a Best Presentation award at the Electronic Materials Conference for her research focused on enabling very high efficiency power devices.

Quantum tech: Semiconductor “flipped” to insulator above room temp

Discovery could pave the way to high speed, low-energy quantum computing.

Eric Michielssen appointed to State of Michigan Mobility Task Force

Appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Eric Michielssen joins the Council on Future Mobility and Electrification to advance the state’s future mobility ecosystem

Six ECE faculty and staff recognized for their outstanding contributions

Remembering Bruce Arden: U-M faculty member and past chair of Computer and Communication Sciences department

Arden’s goal was to make computing and programming more accessible to nonspecialists.

U-M forms collaboration to advance quantum science and technology

The Midwest Quantum Collaboratory studies quantum science and technology.

Research full speed ahead on manufacturable III-V materials for next-generation electronics

A recent breakthrough in ferroelectric III-V semiconductors at the University of Michigan has been followed by several advancements and new funding to bring the technology closer to market.

Optimizing the interactions between critical infrastructure systems for better flexibility, sustainability, and resiliency

PhD student Anna Stuhlmacher researches how the water distribution network can better provide services to the power network, which can allow for greater integration of renewable energy sources into the grid, reduce costs, and improve system resiliency.

Batteryless next-generation cellular devices could empower a more sustainable future

PhD student Trevor Odelberg is looking to enable long range, highly reliable, and low-power cellular IoT devices that one day can run entirely on harvested energy, reducing battery waste and empowering devices to last for decades.