UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter January 2011

Wang Wins CAREER Award January 2011

Faculty Achievements

Student Achievements

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Got News? Please Contact ECE Newsletter Editor Prof. Yan Luo: 978-934-2592 or Yan_Luo@uml.edu

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Mil’shtein awarded international patents

Prasad awarded industrial grants

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Salameh presents at electric vehicle summit

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Congratulations! Dr. Sohan Purohit successfully defended his dissertation

ECE Assistant Professor Xingwei Wang recently won the most prestigious CAREER award from National Science Foundation for educators in their early career stage. Her project is titled “CAREER: Novel Mechanism for Generation and Receiving of Ultrasound on a Single Fiber Using Nanoparticles”, a five year project (July 2011 through June 2016) in the amount of $400K.

The goal of Wang’s CAREER project is to create a novel mechanism to systematically integrate an ultrasound receiving module and a generation module using nanoparticles into a single optical fiber so that it can steer the ultrasound to any desired direction.

This fundamental research will strive to eliminate the critical constraint, low efficiency, which has been restricting the practical applications of the optical fiber ultrasound generators. The outcome of this research will open up a new avenue for research on integration of ultrasound generation and receiving on a single optical fiber tip. The research will be the first attempt to optically steer the direction of ultrasound generated in an optical fiber which can allow fast 360-degree cross section view and defect detection in any angle.

The broader impacts of this project include: 1) The fundamental research will have a direct impact on the creation of the world’s smallest duplex ultrasound probe. The probe can be used for diagnosis of coronary artery disease which is the No. 1 killer in USA. It can assess the stent effectiveness and diagnose misplacement of stents which occurs in 66.5% of the 1 million coronary artery disease patients each year. Other applications include structural health monitoring, surveillance

in unmanned miniature vehicles, and navigation in autonomous intelligence robotics. 2) Educational initiatives will broaden participation of the underrepresented groups, especially female students.

Prof. Wang’s research group has recently had a number of papers accepted by well-recognized journals such as Journal of Biomedical Materials Research and International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Medicine.

For more information about Prof. Wang’s research, please visit http://faculty.uml.edu/xwang/ .

Therrien publishes high-profile journal papers

Luo collaborates with international partners on research

ECE graduate student Paula Bustos receives special scholarship 5

UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter January 2011

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Prof. Kanti Prasad Awarded Industrial Grants

Prof. Joel Therrien Publishes in High Profile Journals

Prof. Kanti Prasad has received an award of $60,000 from Analog Devices Inc. for the research on “Continuation of Built-in Self-Test and Built-in Calibration BIST and BIC Procedures for MEMS Including Development of Algorithms Pertaining to No-Shake Techniques” for the academic year 2010-2011.

Prasad has also received an award of $60,000 from Skyworks Solutions Inc. for the research on “Continuing Performance Enhancement of Mobile

Switches Deploying Innovative Material and Electrical Characterization, Measuring Modeling and Processing Techniques Towards pHEMTs and LNAs” for the academic year 2010-2011.

Prof. Prasad is also an active researcher of engineering education. He will give a presentation titled “A Consummate Model of VLSI Education for Preparing the Workforce towards Meeting the Challenges of the Hi-Tech Industry through Industrial Involvement” at ASEE’s annual conference in Vancouver, Canada.

Professor Therrien's research group has published two articles in high profile journals. The first, published in Physical Review B, reports on the observation of optical chirality in graphene. Chiral materials have the effect of rotating the polarization angle of light passing through them. Graphene's chirality comes as a surprise both in that its structure would not suggest this will happen and in the fact that a material that is only one atom thick can have an observable effect. The publication has already garnered some attention; it has been selected for the December 20, 2010 issue of Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology.

The second article reports on the use of a piezo based biosensor for the assessment of the toxicity of single walled carbon nanotubes. In a collaboration between ECE, Biology, Chemistry, and Work Environment, a sensor using a quartz crystal oscillator was used to monitor the health of the cells attached to the surface of the quartz. Lung cells specificallyknown to be sensitive to fibrous materials, such as asbestos, were added to the sensor and subsequently exposed to various doses of nanotubes.

The sensor was found to predict the death of the cells via apotosis between 24-48 hours in advance. The sensor is expected to have uses in environmental monitoring, testing for toxicity in nanomaterials, drug development and customized cancer therapeutics.

"Rotation of the linear-polarization plane of transmitted and reflected light by single- and few-layer graphene," T. Jiang, D. Emerson, K. Twarowski, D. Finkenstadt, and J. Therrien, Physical Review B 82, 235430 (2010)

"A living cell quartz crystal microbalance biosensor for continuous monitoring of cytotoxic responses of macrophages to single-walled carbon nanotubes", Gang Wang, Abiche H. Dewilde, Jianping Zhang, Anoop Pal, Malavika Vashist, Dhimiter Bello, Kenneth A. Marx, Susan J. Braunhut and Joel M. Therrien, Particle and Fibre Toxicology 2011, 8:4

UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter September 2010

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Prof. Ziyad Salameh Presents at Electric Vehicle Summit

Prof. S. Mil’shtein was recently awarded an international patent: S. Mil'shtein, A. Churi, P.Ersland and B. Rizzi "Bipolar Transistor with Quantum Well Base and Quantum Well Emitter" International patent # WO2010/117467A2 (2010). During tenure with UML Prof. S. Mil’shtein received 4 international patents.

Due to his expertise and contribution to the research community, Prof. S. Mil’shtein was elected to serve as a member of Organizing Committee of 7th International Conference on Low Dimensional Structures and Devices, which will be held in Nuevo Yukatan, Mexico on 22 -27 May, 2011.

Prof. Samson Mil’shtein Awarded International Patent

Prof. Salameh with his electric car at the Electric Vehicle Summit, Lowell, MA Oct 6, 2010

Prof. Ziyad Salameh, a well-known researcher in electric vehicle and alternative energy, was one of the invited participants and presenters at the Electric Vehicle Summit and Workshop held at UMass Lowell on Oct 6, 2010.

Nearly 200 people attended the Electric Vehicle Summit and Workshop, supported by the state Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and UMass Lowell, held at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center. The attendees got an opportunity to view the latest in electric-vehicle technology and listen to the presentations and discussions on the latest in alternative-fuel technology. To promote zero- and low-emission electric-vehicle use in Massachusetts, experts from UMass Lowell, together with automakers, manufacturers, electrical unions, municipal officials and industry representatives envisioned the future of electric-

powered and hybrid vehicles, from compact cars to large pickups, and set plans for research and development.

Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles announced at the event that the state will take applications in the next 60 days from cities and towns interested in installing electric-vehicle charging stations. Grants will be funded through a $200,000 settlement obtained by Massachusetts and seven other states and the U.S. Department of Justice in 2007 for alleged pollution-control equipment violations at 11 electric power plants operated by Ohio-based American Electric Power Service Corp. and its affiliates.

Prof. Yan Luo Collaborates Internationally Prof. Yan Luo has had fruitful collaboration with international partners in advanced research. He hosted a visiting student from University of Granada, Spain who worked in Prof. Luo’s Computer Architecture and Network Systems lab on network processor based high performance network intrusion detection systems. Their joint work has produced a peer-reviewed conference paper in ACM Symposium on Architecture for Network and Communication Systems 2009, and an accepted paper in one of the well-recognized journals: Journal of Supercomputing. Prof. Luo is also working with a research group at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication on network virtualization and has co-authored four papers which are currently under journal and conference submissions.

UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter January 2011

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Editor’s Note: We regularly present profiles of our wonderful student researchers and postdocs. Please email Prof. Yan Luo (yan_luo@uml.edu) to introduce your ECE team members.

Dr. Sohan Purohit Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Massachusetts Lowell (2007-2011)

Sohan Purohit received his B.E and M.S degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (V.J.T.I), Mumbai and University of Rochester, USA in 2006 and 2007 respectively and the PhD degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in January 2011. In the summer of 2008, he worked with the Department of Electronics, Informatics and Computer Science at the University of Calabria, Italy as a visiting doctoral researcher.

His thesis focused on the hardware-software co-design of resource efficient adaptable architectures for high throughput processing. Besides this he has also been exploring his other research interests including performance efficient arithmetic circuits and systems, high speed clock-less dynamic circuit design, and low overhead radiation hardened circuits and architectures. Recently, he has also been involved in the design of high speed digital electronics using novel non-CMOS devices. During the term of his PhD, he has over 25 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and conference proceedings.

Sohan is a student member of the IEEE. He is also member of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society and IEEE Computer Society. He currently serves as a referee for Integration, The VLSI Journal, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems and IEEE Transactions on VLSI Systems and several IEEE/ACM conferences. In 2010 he served on the technical program committee of the IEEE International Conference on Emerging Trends in Electronics Technology.

Sohan wants to use the concepts he learnt during his PhD research, to pursue a career in teaching the Computer Engineering stream where his main focus will be on the VLSI design of high performance circuits and architectures. He also hopes to actively continue with research in VLSI system design by supervising research projects by graduate and undergraduate students.

Recent Ph.D. graduate in Prof. Martin Margala’s Team

UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter September 2010

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At the HENAAC Conference 2010, held on October 9 – 11 in Orlando, Fl. ECE graduate student Paula Bustos (supervised by Prof. S. Mil’shtein) received a special scholarship. The first HENAAC conference was held in 1989 as a means of identifying, honoring, and documenting the contributions of outstanding Hispanic American science, engineering, technology and math professionals.

Here is what Paula said about her experience attending the conference:

“Honoring the past, empowering the future was the motto for this year’s HENAAC Conference organized by the “Great Minds in STEM” organization. The HENAAC conference focuses on identifying, honoring and documenting the contributions of outstanding Hispanic American in science, engineering, technology and math. They are dedicated to highlight Hispanic Talent in the United States. This is the third time I attend this conference and every time I come back home very motivated. The HENAAC conference was a great opportunity to meet professionals who have succeeded in the STEM field. I had the opportunity to network with professionals from companies such as

Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Chevron, Ford, NASA, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and more. As well, I was able to network with other Engineering students in the United States. I met people from MIT, Penn State, Cal Pomona, and Florida International University. As a scholarship recipient by Booz Allen Hamilton I’m very thankful for the opportunity to attend the HENAAC conference and meet the Hispanic community in the STEM field. This conference does not only highlight the Hispanic talent but also looks to inspire future generations. In my opinion I think they are doing a pretty good job because I’m inspired and moved by the story of the people attending the conference. After three days of extensive work, Great Minds in STEM gave away World Disney passes to the HENAAC attendees. This was my first time in Disney World and it was unforgettable. I always wanted to go to Magic Kingdom and meet Mickey Mouse. This dream has come true! I truly enjoyed the HENAAC conference and I look towards to future ones.”

ECE Student Paula Bustos Receives Special Scholarship