Electrical and Computer Engineering · 2019. 5. 16. · brain machine interface probe. Researchers...

Annual Report 2017 – 2018

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Table of ContentsMessage from the Chair 1

In Memoriam: Joseph Noonan 2

Department News and Announcements 3

Faculty News, Honors, and Awards 4

Faculty Research 6

Student News 8

Alumni Highlights 12

Our Graduates 14

Events 16

External Advisory Board Members 16

Our Faculty 17

Production: Emily Jensen

Contributing Writers: Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite

Michelle Chan Lisa Fantini, Jon Manninen,

Robert Treiber, and Kenny Yau Emily Jensen

Ron Lasser Eric Miller

News Staff, Tufts Now Lynne Powers

Ellen Schuette Mike Silver

Photography: Michelle Chan

Kelvin Ma Anna Miller

Alonso Nichols Nicholas Pfosi

Tufts Photo iStockPhoto

Design: What Design, Inc.

On the Cover: Professor Sameer Sonkusale

and co-authors devised an inexpensive process to create

degradable microneedles—which can deliver medication through the skin without causing pain—using polyvinyl alcohol polymer.

From the ChairOnce again, I am pleased to report that the 2017-2018 academic year has been a period of success and growth for the Tufts Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE). Enrollments in ECE continues to be strong. This past spring, we were thrilled to welcome 24 new B.S. students into our Electrical Engineering program and another 10 into Computer Engineering. This cohort complements the 33 new graduate students who arrived last fall. On the flip side, this spring we were proud to grant 21 undergraduate and 39 graduate degrees — a wonderful addition to the 30 and 15 from last year.

A major focus over the past year was our ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) visit last October. While the department’s curricular activities needed to maintain accreditation are ongoing, once every six years our two undergraduate programs in electrical engineering and computer engineering are formally evaluated. The evaluation process requires the assembly of a substantial report for each program and a three-day visit by a team of experts who meet with the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and administration. I am so happy to be able to say that the ABET visit was a major success. The visitors were really impressed (as they should be!) and gave us a clean bill of health for the next six years. While everyone in the department contributed, I have to acknowledge

the special effort of the directors for the EE and CompE programs, Professors Usman Khan and Hwa Chang, and the department staff, Miriam Santi and Jenn St. Pierre, each of whom went way above and beyond to ensure this outcome.

The last 12 months have also been marked by a substantial expansion in our academic programs. Recognizing both the fast pace of changes in computer engineering and the rising demand for post-bachelor’s professionals in this discipline, Professor Mark Hempstead spearheaded the creation of a master’s degree program in computer engineering. Jointly offered with our colleagues in the Department of Computer Science, this new degree program will focus on providing students with advanced expertise in computer networking, computer architecture, and computer software/systems. Likewise, ECE is leading the university in the data science revolution with new degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Here, ECE’s Professor Shuchin Aeron along with Professor Alva Couch from Computer Science have crafted programs which balance the mathematical and engineering rigor required to have impact in this field with the exposure to “real world” problems and application areas that are driving demand and interest in data science. More details about all of the programs as well as ECE’s participation in initiatives in the areas of materials science and human-robot interaction can be found on our website.

This year we were pleased to welcome two new faculty to our department. Joel Grodstein comes to Tufts after a 30-year career at DEC, Compaq, HP, and Intel, working in the areas of VLSI, computer architecture, and computer-aided design. He will be teaching classes in these areas as well as courses at the intersection of computer engineering and biological systems. Steven Bell joins us as a lecturer, having just received his Ph.D. at Stanford with interests in computational photography, computer vision, and systems software. In addition to courses in computer vison and image processing, Steven is supporting our expanding computer engineering programs at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Please read through the remainder of this report to get a sense of the impressive accomplishments and exciting work of our faculty, students, and alumni over the past 12 months. I hope you will consider supporting the department with a financial gift. Your donation would make a real difference to our students and faculty not only for their work relating to ECE specifically, but also in helping to bring our profession’s skills and domain knowledge to bear on a host of important, interdisciplinary application domains.

Best,

Eric Miller, Professor and Chair

Professor and Chair Eric Miller

1engineering.tufts.edu/ece

In Memoriam: Joseph Noonan A triple Jumbo and expert in signal processing, Professor Joseph P. Noonan taught at Tufts for nearly four decades.

Joseph P. Noonan, E67, EG69, EG73, a professor emeritus and former

chair of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,

passed away on April 10, 2018 following a two-year battle with

cancer. He was seventy-three.

Between his years on campus as an undergraduate and graduate

student in electrical engineering, and then teaching—first as a part-

time lecturer, and then as a professor starting in 1985—Noonan was

a fixture on Tufts University’s Medford and Somerville campus for

almost fifty years.

After completing his M.S. in 1969, he began his career with Raytheon

Company, working in the field of signal processing. He completed

his Ph.D. in 1973, and in 1978 he founded his own company, Bedford

Research Associates, a mathematical analysis and scientific

software firm.

At the same time, he also served as a part-time lecturer at the

School of Engineering. In 1985, he was appointed an associate professor of electrical engineering at Tufts, and

received tenure in 1990. He was promoted to the rank of professor in 2000, and was chair of the Electrical and

Computer Engineering Department from 2005 to 2007. He retired in 2012 and was named professor emeritus.

“Professor Noonan will be greatly missed by all those he touched in his accomplished life, and by the Tufts

community that has been enriched by his expertise and his dedication to students,” said Jianmin Qu, Karol Family

Professor and dean of the School of Engineering.

In 1992, Noonan received the Lillian and Joseph Leibner Award for Distinguished Teaching and Advising. “Students

remembered him as a fair teacher who rewarded hard work, participation, and effort, and who made difficult

material fun to learn,” Qu said.

Noonan’s expertise was statistical communication theory, which seeks to understand and mitigate the problem

of noise and interference in electronic communication devices and systems through the use of advanced

mathematics. He published more than one hundred papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings, and

was granted a U.S. patent.

He is survived by his wife Sandra, their five children, their 13 grandchildren, and his brother Philip and sister-in-law

Paula.

2 2017 – 2018 Annual Report | Tufts Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department News and AnnouncementsNew degrees at Tufts Applications will open in the fall of 2018 for new certificate and master’s degrees in computer engineering.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science have come

together to administer the new programs, a partnership that underscores how engineering education is striving to

keep pace with evolving technologies.

By integrating training in hardware, software, and networking, the program speaks to how computers have

permeated all aspects of society—for personal use, for corporate and government work, and for autonomous

systems like self-driving cars.

Other new ECE degrees: » Bachelor’s of Science in Data Science, with the Department of

Computer Science

» Master’s of Science and Certificate in Data Science, with the

Department of Computer Science

» Master’s of Science in Human-Robot Interaction, with the

Departments of Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering

ECE hosts IEEE symposiumIn August 2017, Tufts University hosted the 60th IEEE International

Midwest Symposium on Circuits and Systems. Facilitated by

Associate Professor Valencia Koomson, who was the conference’s

Technical Program chair, this is the oldest IEEE-sponsored conference

in the area of analog and digital circuits and systems.

Seniors publish ECE senior design handbookEach year, the senior ECE capstone design class writes and

publishes a tech-note or article for the ECE senior design handbook.

The assignment’s purpose is to convey a topic to a general

audience associated with their project. Professor of the Practice Ron Lasser and seniors receive requests and

acknowledgements from instructors at other universities to use ECE student writing for reading assignments in

their classes. Visit sites.tufts.edu/eeseniordesignhandbook

Tufts Robotics wins international competitionThe Tufts Robotics Club took first place in team and individual categories in the Olympiad Tournament in the

international Trinity College Firefighting Robot Contest. The club’s president is Ryan Stocking, a senior majoring in

electrical engineering. This year’s success in the Olympiad marks the team’s fourth win since 2014.

Associate Professor Valencia Koomson welcomed attendees to the 2017 MWSCAS.


Faculty News, Honors, and AwardsLasser receives teaching awardFor the second year in a row, Professor of the Practice Ronald Lasser received the Henry

and Madeline Fischer Award for Teaching Excellence in the School of Engineering.

The Fischer Award recognizes teaching excellence and dedication to inspiring and

motivating students. School of Engineering faculty are nominated by graduating

seniors. Lasser was honored in the same category in 2009 and 2017.

Hopwood elected as an AVS Fellow Professor Jeffrey Hopwood has been elected as a Fellow of the American Vacuum

Society (AVS). He was honored for seminal contributions to the understanding,

development and applications of microplasmas.

Khan named IEEE Control Systems Letters editor Associate Professor Usman Khan has been named

Associate Editor of IEEE Control Systems Letters.

Aeron named associate editor of TGARSAssociate Professor Shuchin Aeron has been named an

associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and

Remote Sensing (TGARS). As an associate editor, Aeron

will be focusing on seismic data process and underground

imaging, among other categories. He is succeeding

Professor Eric Miller, who served in the same post from

2003 to 2016.

Panetta speaks on industry connections and educationProfessor and Dean of Graduate Education Karen Panetta talked with TechRepublic

about how Tufts engineering students connect with industry mentors as they work on

senior capstone projects, and with the Wall Street Journal’s Tech News Briefing about

the importance of computer science education for young students.

Tracey awarded for teaching with technologyProfessor of the Practice Brian Tracey received a university-wide Teaching with

Technology Award for his innovative use of technology in the classroom.

Professor of the Practice Ronald Lasser

Professor Jeffrey Hopwood

Associate Professor Usman Khan

Professor and Dean of Graduate Education Karen Panetta

Associate Professor Shuchin Aeron

Professor of the Practice Brian Tracey


Faculty Research Highlight: Valencia KoomsonAssociate Professor Valencia Koomson and colleagues are developing a brain machine interface probe.

Researchers from the Department of Electrical

and Computer Engineering, the Department of

Computer Science, and the Center for Applied

Brain and Cognitive Sciences (CABCS) are

working to develop a brain machine interface

probe, funded by the CABCS.

The project will be led by Associate Professor

Valencia Koomson of the Department of Electrical

and Computer Engineering, in collaboration with

Professor Robert Jacob from the Department of

Computer Science and CABCS researchers Dr.

Grace Giles and Dr. Erika Hussey.

The researchers seek to develop a brain

machine interface probe to enable simultaneous

transcranial direct current simulation (tDCS) and measurement of associated changes in oxygenated hemoglobin

using functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) tools. Transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) is a

non-invasive neuro-modulation technique, which holds potential in treating neurological diseases and enhancing

motor and cognitive performance. During tDCS, a weak current, typically between 0.5 to 2mA, is delivered to

brain by electrodes on the scalp to facilitate or inhibit neural activities. Clinical studies conducted by CABCS

researchers have demonstrated the benefits of tDCS for a variety of cognitive use cases, including sustained

attention and vigilance, working memory, response inhibition, and multitasking.

CABCS is an interdisciplinary center for applied cognitive sciences, cooperatively managed by Tufts University

and the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC).

Associate Professor Valencia Koomson and Nana Kwasi Kwakwa, E14, at work in her lab.

Sensing technology for disaster responseIn a collaborative project with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute,

Associate Professor Valencia Koomson received a grant from the

National Science Foundation for research into sensing technology for

rapid characterization of pathogenic bacteria in floodwater generated by

future catastrophic events. This grant was awarded through the EAGER

program for exploratory research, in a special NSF announcement for

projects related to Hurricane Harvey.


Faculty ResearchNew microneedle fabrication processProfessor Sameer Sonkusale and a research team from

the Nano Lab – postdoctoral scholar Hojatollah Rezaei

Nejad and Ph.D. students Aydin Sadeqi and Gita Kiaee

– published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering on a new

method to make microneedles without cleanrooms, using

readily available materials and equipment. Sonkusale said

his research group is “strongly motivated by the need

to create affordable devices for the developing world.”

Microneedle patches, which can be used in many settings,

fit that goal perfectly. “We wanted to see if we could make

them routinely and using a low-cost, cleanroom-free

process,” he said.

Monitoring biomechanics and performanceAssociate Professor Shuchin Aeron and Professor and Chair Eric Miller are among the researchers participating

in the first-of-its-kind MASTR-E study, which is a collaboration between Natick Soldier Research, Development

and Engineering Center (NSRDEC) and a number of other Army and academic organizations, including the Center

for Applied Brain and Cognitive Sciences, which is co-directed by NSRDEC and Tufts University. Researchers are

measuring and monitoring hundreds of metrics in soldiers’ performance across four categories: health, physical,

social-emotional, and cognitive, with the goal of understanding how these factors can be used to predict soldier

performance.

Location awareness for the Internet of ThingsPh.D. alumnus Sam Safavi, EG17, and Associate Professor Usman Khan were part of a research team that created

an improved algorithm for self-localizing and tracking mobile devices, a development that could meet the

demands of a projected 50 billion connected products

in the Internet of Things by 2020. The research was

published in Proceedings of the IEEE. “We used to think

about IoT devices as static,” Khan told IEEE Spectrum,

“but we’re moving to this Internet of Moving Things.”

Microprocessor securityIn an article published in The Conversation, Associate

Professor Mark Hempstead wrote on the innovations

in microprocessor design that have let secrets flow out

of computer hardware. He called for “a faster and more

significant change to restore users’ trust in hardware

security without ruining devices’ performance and

battery life.”

Professor Sameer Sonkusale, Hojatollah Rezaei Nejad, and Aydin Sadeqi

Associate Professor Usman Khan


FRAC award winnersAssociate Professor Valencia Koomson, Professor Sameer Sonkusale, and Associate

Professor Mai Vu each received grants from the Committee on Faculty Research

Awards (FRAC). Sonkusale won an open access award for his proposal, “Low cost

metamaterial on paper chemical sensor”; Vu won a grant-in-aid award for the proposal,

“Interference modeling for cellular networks under beamforming transmission”;

and Koomson received a faculty research fund award for her proposal, “Biological

electricity analysis using biocompatible recording devices.”

Convergence in imaging sciencesWriting for SIAM News, Professor and Chair Eric Miller explained how analytical and computational methods are

coming together to create new advances in imaging technology. He wrote, “In recent years, imaging sciences has

experienced a rather marked increase in fundamentally new advances enabled by the convergence of technological

capabilities and interests, some of which are far removed from the world of applied mathematics.” The article

touched on the wealth of new and challenging sensor technologies.

Associate Professor Mai Vu


Student NewsStudent highlight: Building confidence in Hong KongThis spring, Michelle Chan, E19, studied abroad at the University of Hong Kong and blogged about her experiences.

Michelle is a computer engineering major and a scholar in the Bridge to Engineering Success at Tufts (BEST) program.

Read an excerpt from Michelle’s final blog post below, and read BEST students’ full blogs at go.tufts.edu/BESTnews.

Going back to the U.S., I feel an urgency to preserve my relationship with Chinese culture. To other non-Chinese

exchange students, many foods I loved were foreign and unfamiliar. Their unfamiliarity with Chinese food reflects

the relative lack of it in Western culture. However, it was exciting that they tried these foods, even if they were an

acquired taste. That encourages me to try introducing friends in the U.S. to these foods.

Compared to Tufts, the University of Hong Kong gave less homework, but held similar learning expectations, to be

demonstrated more through exams. I genuinely missed collaborating with my peers back at Tufts on problem sets

where we could check each other’s understanding. Yet, the hours I spent revising alone reinforced my confidence

in my own abilities.

Whoever I was when I finished high school, I couldn’t have imagined myself now, thinking through my own project

designs and creating prototypes. I am bringing questions of “Can I do this?” to a close. From here, I am responsible

for asking myself, “What will I do now?”

Although I am driven, I am also lucky. With the privileged position I am coming into, I’ll do my best to create

opportunities for others to thrive, especially those of marginalized identities who have to work so much harder to

overcome their odds and hardships. I have never felt more grateful for the people who believed in me than I do now.

Photos courtesy of Michelle Chan, E19


Student research highlight: Personal plasma water filtrationEvery year, students in Professor of the Practice Ron Lasser’s Senior Design Project class produce capstone projects. By the

end of the year, the teams develop prototypes and technical notes on their work. In the process, students learn firsthand

about innovative technologies and the design process, and they practice management, communication, and life skills that

will serve them far beyond the Tufts campus.

This year, seniors Lisa Fantini, Jon Manninen,

Robert Treiber, and Kenny Yau aimed to

produce an affordable, portable, energy-

efficient device that provides potable water

to those who need it. Read on for an excerpt

from their project.

The need for clean water rises as the

population continues to grow. Many

communities lack the infrastructure

necessary for providing drinkable water.

Other communities, despite having these

infrastructures, are sometimes unable to

provide their citizens with clean water when natural disasters strike. During major floods, people are surrounded

by undrinkable water contaminated with bacteria, viruses, and volatile organic compounds (VOC’s). While there

are many different types of water filtration systems readily available to the general public, concerns such as cost,

effectiveness, and portability still exist.

The solution to this problem could reside in plasma research. Water purification using plasma has been proven to

destroy 100% of bacteria and viruses and its effectiveness is also being tested to decompose VOC’s. In disaster

scenarios, power is often down for a matter of weeks, and often, citizens are evacuated and some are left on their

own without infrastructure. When no infrastructure exists to provide a population with clean water, the members

of these communities must themselves find clean water. The goal of this project is to create a portable water

bottle attachment that uses plasma to filter the water. The volume we aim to try and purify ranges from 12-64

ounces.

The filter will allow people to attach it to a standard wide-mouth water bottle and pump water from virtually any

source. A pre-filter will be used to filter out larger sediment before entering the purification chamber containing

the plasma purification process. Incorporated into the design will be a status bar, monitoring power levels and

pressures inside the chamber. A USB cable attached to an outlet or a hand crank will recharge the batteries

powering the unit. The plasma disinfects water by emitting UV light. UV light is energetic enough to break water

into free radicals. These free radicals destroy any impurities in the water.


Quick HitsSenior wins Presidential Award for Civic LifeElectrical engineering senior Ryan Stocking received a

Tufts Presidential Award for Civic Life, which recognizes

outstanding achievements in service, leadership, and

civic engagement. Stocking led the reinstatement of

the Engineering Student Council, a student organization

that serves as an umbrella for many student groups.

During his time at Tufts, Stocking also worked with the

Tufts Community Union and served as the president, co-

treasurer, and project manager of Tufts Robotics Club,

and president of the Tufts IEEE chapter.

ECE majors named Summer ScholarsAs Tufts summer scholars, Kevin Naranjo, E20, studied

performance analysis of key facial recognition algorithms

with Professor and Dean of Graduate Education Karen

Panetta, while Ashish Neupane, E19, researched a magnetic tracking vest with Professor Sameer Sonkusale.

Tufts team places second at MITRE eventTwo students in electrical and computer engineering, M.S. student Geoffrey Keating and senior Richard Preston,

participated in the MITRE eCTF (embedded capture-the-flag) competition as part of a Tufts student team.

Senior co-authors paper on sensorsElectrical engineering student Logan Garbarini was co-author of a paper, published in Advanced Materials, on tooth

sensors that track what a user eats. Professor Fiorenzo Omenetto of the Department of Biomedical Engineering,

Garbarini, and the team of researchers developed a tooth-mounted sensor that can track glucose, salt, and alcohol,

and wirelessly transmit the information to a device.

Improved conversion for power generatorsDoctoral candidate John Chivers, EG12 and EG18,

received an Intelligence Community Postdoctoral

Fellowship grant. Working with Associate Professor

Tom Vandervelde, Chivers will develop new techniques

to turn heat into electricity for deep space probes, with

the hope that this technology could be part of a NASA

mission to the outer planets in the coming decades.

Ryan Stocking receives his Presidential Award for Civic Life from Associate Professor and Undergraduate Education Dean Chris Swan, Dean of Tisch College Alan Solomont, President Anthony P. Monaco, and Professor of the Practice Ron Lasser.

Logan Garbarini modeled the tooth sensor in an image that was shared by news outlets across the globe.


Senior runs Boston MarathonElectrical engineering major Brian Rappaport, E18,

completed the 2018 Boston Marathon as part of

the Tufts Marathon team. Congratulations to Brian

and all the marathon participants from Tufts!

New directions in ultrasoundPh.D. student Tao Sun, EG18, spoke to WIRED

about his work opening the blood-brain barrier in

a precise and controlled manner and its applications for ultrasound treatments. Working at Brigham & Women’s

Hospital with a team of researchers that included Professor and Chair Eric Miller, Sun was first author on the

paper published in Proceedings in the National Academy of Sciences.

Student teams win Ricci Prize for interdisciplinary engineering designTwo student teams each won a $5,000 Stephen and Geraldine Ricci Interdisciplinary Prize for new engineering

design plans. Tarseer, a team including four electrical and computer engineering alumni, won for their plan for an

accurate and accessible headset for monitoring glaucoma. Camila Menard, E18, is a member of UCHU Biosensors,

the second prizewinning team, which designed an intraoral biosensor for oral health.

Students win at Polyhack hackathonElectrical and computer engineering students Zachary Faber Manning, Sam Gertler, Joe Bessette-Denwood,

Diana Whealan, Emma Pannullo, and Jason Iskenderian, all E19, were among the winners at this year’s student-

run Polyhack hackathon.

Graduate student wins conference awardMargaret Stevens, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering funded through the NASA NSTRF Fellowship program,

won Best Student Presentation at the 33rd North American Molecular Beam Epitaxy (NAMBE) Conference for her

presentation, “Determining indium surface diffusion parameters on InGaAs/InP by employing droplet epitaxy.”

Inspiring the next generation of engineersElectrical engineering Ph.D. candidate Dan Banco participated in the annual Reverse Science Fair, in which Tufts

graduate students visited Medford High School to share their own research, then returned several months later to

check out the high school students’ projects.

Ryan Stocking receives his Presidential Award for Civic Life from Associate Professor and Undergraduate Education Dean Chris Swan, Dean of Tisch College Alan Solomont, President Anthony P. Monaco, and Professor of the Practice Ron Lasser.

ECE undergraduate students received a number of awards this year, including: » Air Force ROTC Prize Award: Ryan Friedman

» Benjamin G. Brown Scholarship: Brian Rappaport

» Bennett Memorial Scholarship: Danielle Skufca

» Class of 1947 Victor Prather Prize: Lisa Fantini

» Class of 1911 Prize Scholarship: Kenny Yau

» Ellen C. Myers Memorial Prize: Diego Espinoza

Rodriguez and Jon Manninen

» Frederick Melvin Ellis Prize: Danielle Skufca

» Lt. Commander R.J. Manning Memorial Prize:

Richard Preston


Alumni HighlightsIntroducing the Tufts ECE Design Innovation Fund Alumnus’s interest in creative lab work will support ECE Capstone projects through 2023.

Entrepreneur Joe Hill, EG86,

attributes his success to the many

people who provided a helping hand

at the right time. He jokes, “They

may not have felt their generosity

was critical in timing, but it was

critical for me in my business.” He

is always aware of the support he

received from others throughout

his career, and now he seeks to

do the same for students at Tufts.

The central tenet fueling his goal of

paying it forward? “Goodness gives

goodness.”

Hill and his wife Alison share a

similar philosophy in philanthropy.

A home health aide cared for

Alison’s father in his later years. A

nurse practitioner herself, Alison

identified the woman’s innate ability and offered to send her to nursing school, with one condition: when she

could, when her life permitted, the former health aide should help another go to nursing school. “We received a

call several years later,” says Joe Hill. “She did not help one person — she helped two.”

Hill wants to give back and to help undergraduate students gain more experience in the lab with hands-on work.

“I believe that there is more to a student’s portfolio than just grades and grad recs,” he says. “Creative lab work is

important. This where the textbook becomes real.”

Hill’s interest in this creative work was the inspiration for the Tufts Electrical and Computer Engineering Design

Innovation Fund (DIF). Current plans for the Fund include funding Capstone materials, software, and test

equipment to address general or specific projects. The Fund allows flexibility in more robust, multi-year Capstone

projects pertaining to drones, radar, GPS, data science, or signal and image processing – or combinations where a

deep dive into subject matter is required.

The establishment of the Fund will support ECE Capstone projects for the next five years. Hill hopes to see support

for this invaluable learning experience continued by many in the Tufts alumni community.

Inspired to help make a DIFerence in ECE? Contact Ellen Schuette at [email protected] or 617-627-0534.


Quick hitsAdams named to National Academy of EngineeringBob Adams, who graduated from Tufts in 1976 with a degree in electrical engineering,

was named to the National Academy of Engineering in 2018. He was recognized by

the Academy for his work on digital storage and reproduction of high-fidelity audio,

and is currently a Fellow at Analog Devices, focusing on innovations in algorithm and

signal processing in healthcare, automotive, and consumer electronics fields.

Chapman studies multistatic arrayAdam Chapman, E17, now works at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and recently co-authored

a paper on a 6-10 GHz circularly-polarized multistatic array for standoff microwave

imaging. The paper was presented at the 2018 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation and

USNI-URSI Radio Science Meeting.

Chen publishes on sensorPh.D. alumna Yu Chen, EG17, was part of a Tufts research team that printed chemoresponsive dyes and

chemiresistive inks on paper to develop a “paper-nose” optoelectronic sensor for

volatile gases in air, with findings published in Analytica Chimica Acta.

Qazi honored as SWE Distinguished Engineer The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) recently recognized Sadaf Qazi, EG08,

with its Distinguished New Engineer Award. Qazi received her M.S. in electrical

engineering from Tufts in 2008 and is a Senior Systems Engineer at Raytheon IDS.

The award acknowledges her outstanding technical performance during the first 10

years of her engineering career.

Harry Poole Burden Prize Established in 1973, the Harry Poole Burden Prize in Electrical Engineering

is awarded for the best design or research project carried out by electrical

engineering undergraduate students during the current academic year. It

was organized by friends of Professor Harry Burden, H53, who was dean of

the College of Engineering from 1936 to 1957. Four seniors received the prize

in 2018: Connor Lansdale, Celia Lewis, Camila Menard, and Danielle Skufca.

This year, an anonymous donor has made a generous gift of $100,000 to

the prize fund. Our anonymous donor became a Tufts student thanks to

the encouragement and guidance of Professor Burden. The prospective

Tufts student followed Professor Burden’s advice and his hard work paid off

with admittance to the Class of 1955. Professor Burden became a cherished

mentor, and time spent with him changed our anonymous donor’s life. He is

proud to honor Professor Burden by supporting the Burden Prize. Professors Harry Burden and Alfred Lane in 1937

Bob Adams

Sadaf Qazi


Our Graduates

Doctoral recipients:Yu Chen (August 2017) Dissertation: Low Cost Optoelectronic Sensors for Gas Monitoring in Diverse Environments

John Chivers Dissertation: Optical Interfaces for Solid State Power Conversion and Advanced Molecular Beam Epitaxy

Robert D’Angelo Dissertation: A Time-mode Translinear Principle and Its Application to Analog Hardware for Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

Hussain Elkotby (February 2018) Dissertation: Cellular Networks

Performance Under User-Assisted Relaying

Bo Fan Dissertation: Exploiting Correlation Structures for Geoscience

Ruiling Gao Dissertation: SRIPS-MS: An Algorithm for Running SRIPS Location Algorithm on Previously Incompatible Hardware

Abigail Licht (February 2018) Dissertation: Extending the Cutoff Wavelength of Thermophotovoltaic Devices via Band Structure Engineering

Stephen Parsons (August 2017) Dissertation: Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Plasma Formation Within 2D Photonic Crystal Defects

Lisa Pinals (August 2017) Dissertation: Link-State and Priority Based Relaying

Sam Safavi (February 2018) Dissertation: Distributed Dynamic Fusion: Theory and Applications

Clifford Youn Dissertation: Information Geometry for Model Reduction in Power Systems


Master of Science in Electrical Engineering:Hao Bai

Cameron Barron

Mohammadhossein Chaghazardi

Wanqing Chen

Uyen Diep

Tong Dong

Joel Dungan

Dominic Emilian

Jishnu Ganguly

Wenjie Han

Alexander Hankin

Lei Hua

Catherine Kravchenko

Kien Le

Diane Liskey

Hao Lu

Brian O’Keefe

Victor Oludare

Jiacheng Qu

Lucia Ramirez

Fakhteh Saadatniaki

Tomer Shapira

Shaun Smith

Margaret Stevens

Deepak Surendran

Chuchen Xia

Ran Xin

Xin Yuan

Haiyang Yun

Wenxin Zeng

Huixian Zhang

Weichen Zhang

Xiaoyu Zhu

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering:Stamatios Aleiferis

Danish Bhatti

Kenneth Brown

Syed Muhammad M Bukhari

Alexander Christenson

Elyse Cooper

Benjamin Francis

Anuththari Gamarallage

Logan Garbarini

Connor Lansdale

Celia Lewis

Anthony Nguyen

Brian Rappaport

Danielle Skufca

Ryan Stocking

Robert Treiber

Craig Vitirinyu

Kenny Yau

Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering:Ambika Jayakumar

Justin Jo

Ashton Knight

Camila Menard

John Patrick

Richard Preston

Thomas Rind

Newly hooded Ph.D. recipients pose with faculty during Commencement.


EventsECE Colloquia Series, Fall 2017:Jeffrey Hopwood, Ph.D., Tufts University

Marvin Onabajo, Ph.D., Northeastern University

Sherief Reda, Ph.D., Brown University

Xin Zhang, Ph.D., Boston University

Jose Bento, Ph.D., Boston College

Emily Whiting, Ph.D., Boston University

Vivek Goyal, Ph.D., Boston University

Akshay Rajhans, Ph.D., Mathworks

ECE Colloquia Series, Spring 2018: Ehsan Elhamifar, Ph.D., Northeastern University

Atif Shamim, Ph.D, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Jacob Rosenstein, Ph.D., Brown University

Rahul Sarpeshkar, Ph.D., Dartmouth University

Michael Yakes, Ph.D., U.S. Naval Resesarch Laboratory

Princess Imoukhuede, Ph.D., University of Illinois – Urbana Campaign

Konstantin (Kostya) Turitsyn, Ph.D, MIT

Jim Ellis, Cavium Networks

Qiangfei Xia, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Jesse Zhang – Tufts Alumni & current PhD student at Stanford University

Ahmed Ali, Ph.D, Fellow at Analog Devices

External Advisory Board MembersBehnaam Aazhang Rice University Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Sharon Donald Draper Laboratory Director, Independent Research & Development

Deborah Dunie SAIC, Alliant Energy Member, Board of Directors

Tony Marinilli Raytheon Chief Hardware Engineer, Engineering, Technology, and Mission Assurance

Matt Murphy Menlo Ventures Managing Director

Prem Natarajan University of Southern California Viterbi Executive Director, School of Engineering’s Information Sciences Institute

Arye Nehorai Washington University Chair, Electrical and Systems Engineering

Thomas O’Dwyer Analog Devices Director of Healthcare Technology

John Roush GSI Group Chief Executive Officer

Robert Shin MIT Lincoln Laboratory Head of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) and Tactical Systems Division

Jan Van der Spiegel University of Pennsylvania Professor, Former Chair, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Matthew Verminski Desktop Metal Vice President of Engineering

Dmitri Volfson Pfizer Director of Statistics, Research Statistics, Neuroscience Unit


Our Faculty DEPARTMENT CHAIR AND PROFESSOR

Eric Miller Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology Physics-based signal and image processing and inverse problems, Applications explored include medical imaging and image analysis, environmental monitoring and remediation, landmine and unexploded ordnance remediation, and automatic target detection and classification

PROFESSORS

Mohammed Nurul Afsar Ph.D., University of London Precision microwave, millimeter, submillimeter, terahertz, infrared wave; Solid, liquid, and gaseous state physics, spectroscopy

Jeffrey Hopwood Ph.D., Michigan State University Microwave circuit design for microplasma generation, Microplasma-based environmental sensors and other microsystem applications, Plasma diagnostic methods, characterization and modeling

Karen Panetta Ph.D., Northeastern University Image and signal processing for security and medical applications, Modeling and simulation, Multimedia

Douglas Preis Ph.D., Utah State University Signal analysis, Digital signal processing, Audio engineering, Electromagnetic theory

Sameer Sonkusale Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania Integrated circuits for sensors and instrumentation, Nanoelectrochemical systems on silicon, CMOS image sensors for scientific imaging, Analog to information converters, Active metamaterial circuits and systems, Terahertz integrated circuits, Metamaterials and plasmonics

Aleksandar Stankovic Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology Modeling, control, and estimation in electric energy processing, Power electronics, Power systems, Electric drives

ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS

Shuchin Aeron Ph.D., Boston University Statistical signal Processing (SSP), Inverse problems, Compressed sensing, Information theory, Convex optimization, Machine learning

Chorng Hwa Chang Ph.D., Drexel University Computer architecture, Parallel processing, Computer networking, Hardware description languages, Simulation and programmable logic design, Engineering education

Usman Khan Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University Robotics, Signal processing, Sensing in the context of distributed estimation and control algorithms, Distributed, iterative algorithms in random environments

Valencia Joyner Koomson Ph.D., University of Cambridge Design of silicon-based mixed-mode VLSI systems (analog, digital, RF, optical), Analog signal processing, Optoelectronic system-on-chip modeling and integration for applications in optical wireless communication and biomedical imaging

Mark Hempstead Ph.D., Harvard University Computer architecture, Computer systems, Power-aware computing, Embedded systems, Mobile computing

Tom Vandervelde Ph.D., University of Virginia Interaction of light with matter, Physics of nanostructures and interfaces, Semiconductor photonics and electronics, Epitaxial crystal growth, Materials and devices for energy and infrared applications

Mai Vu Ph.D., Stanford University Cognitive and cooperative communications, Energy-efficient communications, Wireless communications, Network information theory, Statistical signal processing, Convex optimization and applications

PROFESSORS OF THE PRACTICE

Ronald Lasser Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University Digital image processing, Computer animation, Swarm robotics, Innovation, Engineering method & design

Brian Tracey Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology Imaging techniques and image processing, Computational acoustics and acoustical signal processing, Biomedical signal processing and medical device development

RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

Kevin A. Grossklaus Ph.D., University of Michigan Optoelectronics, Thin film deposition, Energy materials, Materials characterization, III-V semiconductors

LECTURERS

Brian Aull Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology Photon-counting imaging, Wavefront sensing, Low-light passive imaging

Steven Bell Ph.D., Stanford University Signal and image processing

Joel Grodstein M.S.C.S., University of Utah VLSI, Computer architecture, Computer-aided design and computing at the intersection of hardware and software, Interdisciplinary courses combining these topics with biology

Department of Electrical and

Computer Engineering

Halligan Hall

161 College Avenue

Medford, MA 02155

In Professor Karen Panetta’s Vision and Sensing System Lab, students like Victor Oludare are using computer vision algorithms, deep learning AI models, and drones to detect elephants in video streams and track those elephants in real time.

Electrical and Computer Engineering · 2019. 5. 16. · brain machine interface probe. Researchers...

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Transcript of Electrical and Computer Engineering · 2019. 5. 16. · brain machine interface probe. Researchers...