the 2009 ece communicator

In This Issue1

2

3

4

5

6-7

8

9

10

11

12

With the economic downturn, the situation has been difficult for all of us. Fortunately, our department has been able to weather the storm and gain strength despite budget cuts. In this newsletter, I am pleased to communicate the activities, achieve-ments, and awards of ECE students and faculty. Our department con-tinues to thrive – in academics, in research, and in spirit.

Our faculty members continue to push the cutting edge of modern engineering research. Our seniors completed outstanding projects in both our industry-sponsored Clinic Program and in their individual se-

nior research projects. I truly en-joyed witnessing their talent and enthusiasm at our Technical Open House last April.

Over the past year, various gradu-ate students and professors have been recognized for excellence in research – a few of their stories are included in this newsletter. We also hosted a score of outstanding guests in our graduate seminar lecture series. These guests bring unique ideas to campus and help us light the fire of intellectual curi-osity in the minds of our students.

Message from the Chair

Summer 2009

Message from the Chair

Distinguished Lecture Series

Welcome New Faculty

Wireless Communication Security

PhD Candidate Wins Research Demo Competition

Power Systems Engineering

Wire Fault Location

Technical Open House

Department Events

Donors and Friends

Keep in touch with ECE

COMMUNICATORElectrical and Computer Engineering

Message from the Chair continued

This year, I am particularly proud to report on our success in a project of great personal interest: we succeeded in starting a new program to train the future generation of power systems engineers. Our first course under the new program, “Introduction to Electric Power Engineering,” was a resounding suc-cess with our students. We also raised funds from in-dustry and obtained the approval for a new perma-nent faculty position. Next year, the faculty member will join our department and introduce fundamental courses in the power systems and in the power elec-tronics area.

We also welcomed three new members to our fac-ulty in 08-09, two of which joined through the USTAR (Utah Science, Technology and Research) Initiative. These faculty members are leaders in the microelec-tronics and micro/nano systems fields, and will con-tribute to making the area a powerful pole of attrac-tion for the best and brightest graduate candidates.

Of course, alumni and friends of the ECE Department continue to play a vital role in our growth. If a few stories in this newsletter strike a chord of personal in-terest, please consider supporting the efforts of our talented students and faculty using the enclosed en-velope. Your commitment to our department dem-onstrates your enthusiasm for higher education, and we couldn’t excel as we do without you.

I hope you enjoy this annual update on activities within our department, and thank you for your sup-port.

Marc BodsonProfessor and ChairElectrical and Computer Engineering

The ECE Department will soon host the fifth annual Thom-as and Mary Lu Judd Distinguished Lecture Series. The series brings outstanding leaders in engineering fields to campus to share their groundbreaking ideas with our stu-dents, alumni, and faculty members. The lecture series is open to all alumni and friends of the ECE Department.

The 2008 Lecture Series Speakers

Philip T. Krein, the Grainger Endowed Director’s Chair professor at the University of Illinois. Prof. Krein spoke about power systems engineering and the next revolu-tion in power generation and distribution. His research interests include the design of high-performance electric machines and control of power electronic systems.

Gerald Loeb, professor of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Medical Device Development Facility at the University of Southern California and the Deputy Di-rector of the NSF Engineering Research Center on Biomi-metic MicroElectronic Systems. Prof. Loeb discussed the future of implantable medical devices.

Krishna Shenoy, director of the Neural Prosthetic Sys-tems Lab at Stanford University. His group conducts neuroscience and neuroengineering research to better understand how the brain controls movement, and to design medical systems to assist those with movement disabilities. Prof. Shenoy shared his insight on the future development of integrating prostheses into the human body.

2009 Brings New Distinguished Speakers

Upcoming seminars will be held during the Fall 2009 se-mester on Fridays at 3:05 p.m. Guests are also invited to have refreshments beginning at 2:45 p.m. Please watch the ECE Departmental calendar at www.ece.utah.edu for updates to the seminar schedule.

Thomas and Mary Lu Judd Distinguished Lecture Series

Massood Tabib-AzarUSTAR Professor

Massood received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the Rensse-laer Polytechnic Institute in 1984 and 1986, respectively. In 1987 he joined the faculty of the EECS Department at Case Western Reserve University. He was a fellow at NASA during 1992-1993, and was on sabbatical at Harvard University during 93-94 and at Yale University during 2000-2001.

Massood’s current research interests include nanometrology (microwave-atomic force microscopy), molecular electronics, novel devices based on solid electrolytes, sensors and actuators (microfluidics), and quantum computing. His teaching interests include development of courses in the area of electronic device physics and electromagnet-ics with an emphasis on solving problems and the use of computer-aided instruction tools. He has authored three books, two book chapters, more than 110 journal publi-cations, and numerous conference proceedings articles.

Michael ScarpullaAssistant Professor

Mike received his Ph.D. in 2006 in Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley after successfully defending his dissertation in III-Mn-V Ferro-magnetic Semiconductors Synthesized by Ion Implantation and Pulsed-Laser Melt-ing.

Mike’s research interests are in compound semicondcutors, dilute semiconductor al-loys, transparent conductors, and novel materials for thin film photovoltaics. He uses a variety of epitaxial growth methods such as ion implantation and pulsed laser melt-ing (II-PLM), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), and organometallic vapor phase epitaxy (OMVPE / MOCVD) to synthesize thin semiconductor films. His research at the Uni-versity of Utah focuses on novel semiconductor materials that are environmentally benign and abundant for use in thin film photovoltaics.

Carlos MastrangeloUSTAR Professor

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Carlos comes to Utah following an associate profes-sorship at Case Western Reserve University. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. de-grees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. At other times in his career, he was at the Scientific Research Laboratory, Ford Motor Company, Dearborn MI, developing microsensors for automotive applica-tions, and an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Center for Integrated Microsystems, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Carlos’s research interests include micro- and nano-systems for biomedical applica-tions, microsystems for high throughput DNA sequencing, instrumentation of single cells, and microfluidic systems for biological monitoring and drug delivery.

Welcome New ECE Faculty Members

Improving Future Computer Security Through New Encryption Technologies

$350,000 NSF grant seeks to improve security of wireless computer networks

“Traditional cryptography, which is how we make our wireless links private today, uses public key methods for secure secret key exchange. But now, concerns about the security of public keys in the future have spawned research into methods that don’t use public keys,” says Neal Patwari, assistant professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering.

In September of 2008, an NSF grant to the Univer-sity of Utah boosted Patwari’s research aiming to improve wireless communication security over the next three years.

The principal investigators are both assistant pro-fessors at the University: Sneha Kasera in Com-puter Science and Neal Patwari in Electrical and Computer Engineering. The NSF grant to the ECE Department will boost research aiming to improve wireless communication computer security over the next three years.

The $350,000 grant is funded through an NSF pro-gram called Cyber Trust, which seeks to improve the security of computer networks.

Together, Neal Patwari and Sneha Kasera are taking a very novel route to solve the problem of sharing se-cret keys. Their research seeks to identify and measure unique physical characteristics of wireless channels between two devices at different random locations – characteristics that cannot be measured by an attacker node from another location. A function of these unique characteristics determines the shared secret between the two devices.

In short, the radio channel is reciprocal and allows two radio devices to measure an identical “secret” without ever needing to communicate the secret over the air. This secret can then be used to encrypt traffic because no third device would be able to measure the same se-cret.

This new encryption method will provide shared secrecy on wireless links in a manner that cannot be defeated by any potential eavesdropper. If suc-cessful, the research group will provide methods and algorithms that can be applied to make Wi-Fi links.

Two ECE graduate students are assisting the proj-ect’s tremendous progress. Suman Jana and Jessica Croft have both developed major implementations of this novel idea. Currently, Jessica is developing a new instrument that can measure the reciprocal radio channels between devices in a novel man-ner. This tool will provide the future foundation for continued progress in both tool development and measurement techniques that will guarantee a successful implementation of the project’s goals.

Opportunistic secret key exchange using wireless link characteristics and device mobility

Demonstration hardware for shared secret key generation prepared by graduate student Jessica Croft. Secret keys generated by the TelosB wireless mote from received signal strength measurements will be displayed on an LED matrix in real time.

Joey Wilson was honored as the 2008 Student Demo Competition winner at the ACM MobiCom Con-ference in September of 2008 for his presentation in Radio Tomographic Imaging.

Joey is researching methods for tracking the location of people and objects that move within a wireless net-work, even when the object being tracked does not carry an electronic device, through an emerging tech-nology called Radio Tomographic Imaging (RTI).

Radio Tomographic Imaging (RTI)

RTI can locate moving objects in areas surrounded by simple and inexpensive radios. RTI is useful in emer-gencies, rescue operations, and security breaches since the objects being tracked need not carry an electronic device. Tracking humans moving through a building, for example, could help firefighters save lives by locat-ing victims quickly.

RTI works by placing many small and inexpensive ra-dios around an area of interest. Each radio is capable of transmitting and receiving wireless signals, creating a dense network of “links” that pass through the area. Objects that move within the area reflect and/or ab-sorb the wireless signal, preventing some of the power from reaching its destination. An image of where the power is being absorbed can be formed using all the link power loss measurements, thus allowing one to know where objects within the area are located.

ECE PhD Candidate Wins Best Demo Award at ACM MobiCom

This research uses theory found in imaging, estimation/detection theory, inverse-problems, regularization, sig-nal processing, communications, electromagnetics, and wireless networking.

ACM MobiCom

ACM MobiCom is an annual conference dedicated to addressing the challenges in the areas of mobile com-puting and wireless and mobile networking. MobiCom is a highly selective conference focusing on all issues in mobile computing and wireless and mobile networking at the link layer and above. MobiCom 2008 was held on September 14-19, 2008, in San Francisco.

Joey Wilson received his Bachelor’s and Master’s of En-gineering degrees from the University of Utah’s Depart-ment of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He then worked for L-3 Communications in Salt Lake City for four years. Joey is currently working towards his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah.

For more information on RTI and its applications, please visit the ECE Department’s SPAN research group website at http://span.ece.utah.edu.

MOTIVATIONA New Generation of Power Systems Engineers

Over the last few decades, power systems engineering pro-grams across the country were progressively eliminated due to a drop in demand for engineers specializing in the gen-eration, distribution, and transformation of electrical power. No such programs currently exist at any institution of higher education in Utah.

But a current retirement trend is spawning a new demand for electrical engineers who specialize in power systems. A new generation of engineers is needed to lead the industry in providing reliable, sustainable power supplies that are ca-pable of meeting our needs while also protecting our envi-ronment.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah is developing a new program to train students in power systems to fill this demand for the future.

MOVING FORWARDNew Scholarship, Courses in Power Systems

The Intermountain Power Agency established a new scholarship in 2008 to support students interested in ca-reers within the power systems industry. The scholarship, aimed at supporting local Utah students, is a first step in attracting the best and brightest electrical engineering students to concentrate in power generation and distri-bution under the Department’s new program.

Beginning in the Fall 2008 semester, a new course titled “Introduction to Electric Power Engineering” was not only offered, but also completely packed with students. The number of spots in the course had to be increased to meet the demand of students anxious to experience the unique challenges that this flexible field can offer profes-sionally and personally.

The course will serve as an introduction to future addi-tions to the curriculum in power systems fields.

Krein, Meliopoulos Deliver Power Systems Seminars, Help Kick-Start Program

Professor Philip T. Krein (left) of the University of Illinois, holder of the Grainger Endowed Director’s Chair in Electric Machinery and Electromechanics and the Director of the Grainger Center for Electric Machinery and Electromechanics, delivered a seminar titled, “Power Electronics, Electrical Energy Systems, and the Next Electrical Energy Revolution.”

Sakis Meliopoulos (right), the George Power Distinguished Professor at the Georgia Institute of Tech-nology and a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Power & Energy Society, presented a seminar titled, “Technology and the Smart Grid.”

Both seminars were well attended by students and industry representatives alike as they shared in the future vision of the Power Systems Engineering program at the University of Utah.

THE ECE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES A NEW POWER SYSTEMS ENGINEERING PROGRAM

SUPPORTNew Chapter of the IEEE Power & Energy Society

Professor Marc Bodson, chair of the ECE Department, obtained approval for the creation of a new Utah chapter of the IEEE Power & Energy Society. The chap-ter will provide a local forum for power systems professionals and students to share enthusiasm and ideas while they develop professionally as vital members of the broader IEEE engineering community.

The IEEE Power & Energy Society is a worldwide, non-profit association of more than 21,000 individuals engaged in electric power engineering. It provides the world’s largest forum for sharing the latest in technological developments in the electric power industry.

FUNDINGLeaders of Utah’s Power Industry Contribute

The ECE Department would like to recognize the following sponsors for their their support of the new program: Intermountain Power Agency, Rocky Mountain Power, Utah Rural Electric Association, Questar, Utah As-sociated Municipal Power Systems, Utah Municipal Power Agency, and Reliable Controls.

The new Power Systems Engineering initiative was made possible by recent donations totaling $232,000 from leaders of the local power industry. By invest-ing in the new program at Utah’s flagship university, local industrial leaders are ensuring a competitive and progressive future for local power generation and distribution.

State of Utah Funds New Faculty Member

The state of Utah is also supporting the new program by providing the resourc-es to hire a new faculty member specializing in power systems. The new fac-ulty member will develop coursework, research laboratories, and the academic environment necessary to train electrical engineering students to lead Utah’s power industry.

THE ECE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES A NEW POWER SYSTEMS ENGINEERING PROGRAM

Photo credit: top left by Marc Bodson, top right by Arby Reed, bottom right unknown

As wire ages, it becomes brittle and may crack and break. Locating these problems can take hours, days, or more, while expensive or mission-critical aircraft sit idle. Some faults are not reproducible on the ground and show up only in flight, often effectively grounding aircraft while maintainers struggle to replicate or find the problem.

The Center of Excellence for Smart Sensors is devel-oping sensors to locate these and other faults in ag-ing aircraft wiring. These sensors can be embedded in handheld maintenance tools, on-board Smart Connec-tor or Smart Wiring sensor systems, or directly into the wiring itself.

Handheld systems will give maintainers eyes that can see through walls to locate the fault, remove a single panel, and repair the damage in a fraction of the time commonly required today.

On-board systems will allow the pilot to test all of the wires in the plane with the push of a button prior to take-off. Next-generation systems will be constantly monitoring the wiring and critical systems to which it is attached, will dynamically trade out the damaged sec-tion, report the damage, plan and orchestrate the re-pair, and dynamically prepare fleet maintenance plans based on data obtained from this continuous monitor-ing.

Wire Fault Location in the Center for Smart Sensors

The Problem with Aging Aircraft Wiring

Students Get Involved

The ECE Department knows that hands-on research expe-rience for our students can more effectively prepare them for future jobs as engineers, sometimes even more so than traditional coursework.

The following graduate students are currently focused on the aging aircraft wiring problem: Shang Wu, Brian Jones, Aly Magleby, Sai Ananthanarayanan, and Eric Lundquist.

They are assisted by the following undergraduate research assistants: Chad Mann, Chase Thompson, Jordan Nicholls, and Justin Fergusen.

Sponsors of the Center for Smart Sensors

Air Force Research Lab (via UTCD, ATT, IAStateU)BoeingFAANAVAIRNational Science FoundationNASA (via JPL)

and other private companies.

ECE Department Technical Open House Honors Students, Alumni

Distinguished Alumnus Award

A. Richard Walje 2008Edward A.E. Rich 2007Hyde M. Merrill 2006Roger P. Webb 2005W. Cleon Anderson 2004D. N. “Nick” Rose 2003Nolan Bushnell 2002A. Tee Migliori 2001Joseph M. Ballantyne 1999Glen Wade 1998

Calvin F. Quate 1997Robert G. Engman 1995Raymond J. Noorda 1994Robert J. Grow 1993Mac Van Valkenburg 1992Benjamin V. Cox 1991

Previous Recipients of the ECE Department Distinguished Alumnus Awards Distinguished Young Alumnus Award

Cynthia Furse 2008Randal R. Sylvester 2007Richard B. Brown 2006Jonathan B. Steadman 2005

Paul Turner Named Distinguished Alumnus

Paul F. Turner (left, pictured with ECE Chair Marc Bod-son) delivered the keynote address at the annual ECE Technical Open House held on March 26th, 2009, where he promoted teamwork and continuing education in the increasingly interdisciplinary forum of modern medical technology.

Paul was recognized as the ECE Department’s Distin-guished Alumnus in 2009 for his contributions as the Chief Technical Officer, Sr VP, and Chairman of BSD Medi-cal Corporation. Paul gradu-ated from the department with his BSEE in 1971 and his MSEE in 1983.

Seniors present group, Clinic projects

The graduating senior students of the ECE Department presented their final projects to an attentive audience of their peers, their professors, representatives of local engineering industry, and local media.

The Department would like to recognize this year’s Clin-ic Program sponsors: Micron, Sandia National Labs, L-3 Communications, Rocky Mountain Power, and ON Semiconductor.

For more information on the ECE Department’s Clinic Program, visit www.ece.utah.edu/clinics

Students, alumni honored at banquet

After presenting the culmination of more than a year of research, ECE seniors enjoyed a semi-formal banquet hosted in the Varsity Ballroom of Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The Micron Clinic Team was honored as the best group project, and individual students recognized for best projects were Brandt Hammer, Jason Wayment, Ste-phen Sieb, Fernando Nelson, and Rohit Pathak.

ECE Department Highlights

Spring 2009 Commencement - Congratulations, ECE Graduates!

Sage Carson of Salt Lake City’s Troop 449 digs into the guts of a computer at Girl Scout Engineering Day. (Photo by Laura Seitz, Deseret News)

On February 26th, 2009, local girl scouts explored the exciting world of engineering to discover the possibilities a degree in engineering can unlock.

The night, hosted by the student chapter of the So-ciety of Women Engineers (SWE) at the University of Utah, gave the girl scouts the chance to play with blinking circuits, tough bridges, robots, and more.

The scouts earned the Discover Technology Junior Badge and the Inventions and Inquiry Cadette Inter-est Patch. The girls went home with hands-on mate-rials to continue their exploration into the fields of engineering.

The Girl Scout activity is one of many outreach pro-grams at the University of Utah that aim to inform students, and in this case young women, of the vari-ous fields and applications that an engineering de-gree from the University of Utah makes possible.

Girl Scout Engineering DayDiscover Engineering Project

Outreach to Local High Schools The ECE Department is participating in a new col-lege-wide initiative to demonstrate the potential careers of engineers to local high school students. The traveling exhibit has hands-on demonstrations contributed from each constituent department.

Electrical Engineering

The Electrical Engineering display showcases various electrical power generators, including a hand-crank generator, a wind power model, and a solar panel powered by a sun-replacement bulb. The demon-stration shows students how integral electrical engi-neers are in developing the green technologies that will soon power our homes and transportation.

Computer Engineering

The Computer Engineering display gives students a hands-on chance to solve simple puzzles through a robotic interface. Three robotic arms, controlled by remote control, will present the students with three tasks: painting a simple picture, solving a simple puzzle, and building a small structure from blocks. Students will experience the relationship between hardware, software, and control systems as they themselves become the artifical intelligence making it possible for a machine to solve a problem.

The mobile display will travel to local high schools in 2009-2010 to spark student interest in engineering programs at the University of Utah.

Thank You, Donors and FriendsWe are pleased to recognize the following individuals who contributed to the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department between April 2008 and March 2009. Your support is vital to our continued success as an outstanding department in both aca-demic excellence and progress in research. We have made every effort to ensure accuracy, but if you have corrections or would like to report an omission to the list, please contact Nathan Weston at [email protected], or at (801) 585-9411.

James Balent ‘93John ‘82 and Kim CauchPaul Colombo ‘98Aukje DalleyBeulah DalleyDouglas Datwyler ‘84Terry DoepkenJason Doyle ‘95Charles Forbes ‘56Robert ‘48 and Kathryn GoodfellowSteven Hadfield ‘78Clarence (Jim) Hanson ‘93Tana HardinPaul ‘90 and Eleanor HillCory HiltonTimothy ‘04 and Michele HollistDavid Humeniuk ‘95Charles Hunt ‘83

Boeing

General Electric Foundation

IBM International Foundation

Intel Foundation

Intermountain Power Agency

Mentor Graphics Foundation

Merit Medical Systems

Micron Technology Foundation

National Science Foundation

Northrop Grumman Foundation

Akhlesh Lakhtakia ‘83Byron ‘77 and Marjean LarsonGerald Mahood ‘60Morris Matthews ‘73Vaughn ‘72 and Evelyn MowerCharles Murphy ‘98Jeffery Neilson ‘85Gary ‘58 and Marga NelsonJason Nguyen ‘01Kent Olson ‘65Mark RamosSalman Sabbah ‘83Jeremy Smith ‘85John Snow ‘65Forrest ‘70 and Rolayne StaffansonClay Westlund ‘50I. Cleeo ‘58 and Orpha Wright

Thank You, Corporations and Foundations

Ophir-Spiricon

PacifiCorp

Questar Educational Foundation

Reliable Controls

Rocky Mountain Power Foundation

Sun Microsystems

Toyota Info Technology Center

Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems

Utah Municipal Power Agency

Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringUniversity of Utah50 S. Central Campus Dr Rm 3280Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9206www.ece.utah.edu

Keep In TouchAlumni are encouraged to update their information with the ECE Department

Update your contact information online: www.ece.utah.edu/alumni_update

Or complete and submit the following survey to: The ECE Department 50 S. Central Campus Dr Rm 3280 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9206

Name ________________________________________

Address ______________________________________

City ___________________ State ___ ZIP ________

Email ________________________________________

Company Name _______________________________

News (activities, honors, awards)

_____________________________________________

Graduation Year _____________

Phone _____________________

Fax _______________________

Cell _______________________

Position ___________________

the 2009 ece communicator

Documents