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Embedded systems are special-purpose computers built into devices not generally considered to be computers. For example, the computers in vehicles, wireless sensors, medical devices, wearable fitness devices, and smartphones are embedded systems. The embedded systems market is growing 50% faster than that for general-purpose computing.
Designing embedded systems is a huge challenge because they have so many requirements: they often need to be tiny, high-performance, inexpensive, reliable, and last a long time on poor power sources, all while sensing and influencing their surroundings. Faculty and students are applying their skills to the entire “stack,” from transistors and circuits to operating systems and applications.
ECE Faculty
David Blaauw
WebsiteLow power and high performance VLSI design; Low power wireless sensors and embedded systems.Jiasi Chen
WebsiteComputer networks, mobile computing, multimedia systems, augmented/virtual reality.Parag Deotare
WebsiteResearch includes light-matter interaction in nanoscale systems and the development of low energy photonic and excitonic devices for applications in data communication and life sciences.Jim Freudenberg
WebsiteFundamental design limitations in feedback control systems, embedded control systems.Inigo Incer
WebsiteCompositional system design, design automation, formal methods, control systems, computational logic, AI, cyber-physical systems.Khalil Najafi
WebsiteSolid-state integrated sensors, Microactuators, Micromechanics, Analog and digital integrated circuitsEuisik Yoon
WebsiteIntegrated circuits and microsystems; BioMEMS and lab-on-chips; implantable biomedical sensors; low-power mixed-mode circuits.Pei Zhang
Website“Structures as Sensors”, which utilizes the physical properties of devices and structures (e.g. cars, buildings, rooms) as a sensor to discover physical information that surrounds them (e.g. people, roads, animals). His approach is applied to many fields including medicine, eldercare, farming, smart buildings.Junyi Zhu
WebsiteHuman-computer interaction, novel sensing devices, fabrication, embedded systems, personal health and medical devices, interaction techniques, prototyping
CSE Faculty
Ron Dreslinski
WebsiteMentoring PlanNovel architectures and design technologies for energy-efficient computing, including near-threshold computer design and experimental 3D computer chips.Scott Mahlke
WebsiteMentoring PlanCompilers, application-specific processors, computer architecture and microarchitecture, embedded systemsMorley Mao
WebsiteMentoring PlanMobile computing, security, networking, distributed systems, SDN, and cloud computing.Alanson Sample
WebsiteMentoring PlanHuman-computer interaction, wireless technology, and embedded systems, with the goal of tackling the critical bottlenecks that limit interactive sensing systems with an eye towards reducing deployment barriers and ensuring scalability.Kang Shin
WebsiteMentoring PlanWireless/mobile computation and networks, security and dependability, cyber-physical systems, embedded real-time systems.Courtesy and Affiliated Faculty
Cynthia Chestek
WebsiteBrain machine interface (BMI) systems implanted in motor and premotor cortex.David Garmire
News Feed
Kickstarter for Buddie: open source, AI-enabled earbuds
Collaborating faculty at the University of Michigan and Fudan University are crowdfunding a new wearable AI audio interface to enable always-listening context awareness, improve privacy, and allow AI application developers to try new ideas.ECE faculty design chips for efficient and accessible AI
Faculty specializing in architecture, hardware, and software innovation accelerate machine learning across a range of applications.Yan Long awarded Predoctoral Fellowship to support research impacting secure communications
Long aims to ensure that the information received from sensing devices is both trustworthy and confidential.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.Pei Zhang solemnly swears that he’s up to some good
In a project he calls the “Marauder’s Map,” Prof. Zhang uses machine learning-based data models, physics models, and heuristic models to turn physical structures into sensing devices.
Two members of ECE will represent U-M at the 2019 Rising Stars in EECS Workshop
The intensive workshop brings together outstanding women who are graduate students or postdocs interested in pursuing academic careers in electrical engineering and computer science.
More efficient machine vision technology modeled on human vision
Prof. Robert Dick and advisee Ekdeep Singh Lubana developed a new technique that significantly improves the efficiency of machine vision applications
Robert Dick to apply cyber information to air quality management
The grant is part of a new $12.5M initiative by the National Science Foundation to encourage computing innovations for a sustainable society.
EECS 461 (Embedded Control Systems) and the freescale cup
This was the first year Freescale opened up the competition to U.S. students—teams from U-M, U-M Dearborn, and Penn State competed against teams from Mexico and China.
Xi Chen and Prof. Robert Dick receive DATE Best Paper Award
The authors analyzed performance and accuracy for a variety of dynamic thermal analysis techniques and used their findings to develop a new analysis technique. Congratulations!