The poster, titled "Room Temperature Ferromagnetism in GaMnN Dilute Magnetic Semiconductor Devices," was just one of the winners out of total of 686 at the meeting.  Other winners came from universities such as National Taiwan University, the University of Michigan, and Harvard University.

The 2009 MRS Fall Meeting was November 30 - December 4 in Boston, Massachusetts. The increasingly cross-disciplinary worldwide activity on materials research culminates every year in the MRS Fall Meetings. Symposium organizers from around the world created a program that addresses leading-edge research and captures the extraordinary progress in materials science and technology, featuring an exciting mix of well-established and popular topics.

Financial magazine Kiplinger picked NC State as the 10th best value among public universities for providing an excellent education at an affordable price.

That's in addition to the 2009 U.S. News & World Report list, where NC State was third in best value among public universities. The latest Princeton Review/USA Today value list for public universities has NC State 13th.

"Our goal is to provide our students with a quality education while keeping tuition affordable," says Dr. Warwick Arden, interim provost and executive vice chancellor. "Combining first-class quality with affordability is the definition of value in higher education. By any measure, NC State passes that test with flying colors."

NC State demonstrates its commitment to a low debt load for its graduates by keeping tuition low, and by directing money toward grants and scholarships that low- and middle-income students can use in lieu of loans to pay for school.

Students put their knowledge to work solving real-world problems, from helping to mitigate the mental effects of aging to developing cutting-edge medical technology. NC State students are among the nation's leaders in winning prestigious academic awards such as the Goldwater, Marshall and Gates Cambridge scholarships.

The quality of NC State's research programs, and its commitment to working with state and national industries, is also reflected in the fact that it places third among national universities that do not have medical schools in the amount of research funding received from industries.

Matt Shipman, NC State News Services - Original Article

The IEEE Custom Integrated Circuits Conference is the premier conference devoted to IC development, showcasing original first published technical work and innovative circuit techniques that tackle practical problems. CICC is the conference to find out how to solve design problems and improve circuit design and design techniques.]]> http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/news/15441 Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0500 Town Crier v2 2010-01-08 Jaehoon Park along with other NCSU students were selected for a Best Presentation Award at the International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium (ISDRS).  Jaehoon is advised by Doug Barlage in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Mark Johnson  of Materials Science Engineering has been his Co-Chair.   The topic of his talk was on Analytical Model of Source Injection for N-type Enhancement Mode GaN-based Schottky Source/Drain MOSFET.

The biennial International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium focuses on exploratory research in electronic and photonic materials and devices. Areas such as novel device concepts, processing technologies, advanced modeling, nanotechnology, nanoelectronics, wide band-gap semiconductors, MEMS materials and devices, oxides and dielectrics, magnetic materials and devices, organic and polymer opto-electronic materials and devices, ultra high frequency devices & RF effects, and high power-high temperature devices are included. The Symposium brings together diverse participants in multidisciplinary areas, and provides a forum for extended personal scientific interaction for engineers, scientists, and students working in the field of advanced electronic materials and device technologies.

FREEDM is an NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC) that aims to revolutionize the nation's power grid and enable the delivery of renewable electric-energy technologies into millions of homes and businesses.

Peterson was joined by Barbara H. Kenny and Bruce Kramer, the ERC program directors for the federal science agency.

Headquartered on NC State's Centennial Campus, FREEDM was established by NSF in 2008. The center is supported by a five-year, $18.5 million ERC grant from NSF and receives additional funding through institutional support and industry membership fees. More than 36 utility companies, electrical equipment manufacturers and alternative energy start-ups are part of the global FREEDM partnership.

The center's partner institutions are Arizona State University, Florida A&M University, Florida State University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, RWTH Aachen University in Germany and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

Prior to joining NSF, Peterson was dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Arizona from 1998 to 2008. He was the head of chemical and environmental engineering at Arizona from 1990 to 1998 and led the merger of those two programs. He holds three degrees in chemical engineering: a bachelor of science degree from Tufts University, a master of science degree from Arizona, and a doctorate from the California Institute of Technology.

College of Engineering News - View the original article]]> http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/news/15335 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Town Crier v2 2009-12-16 Ten North Carolina State University engineering faculty were recognized during the 2009 Innovation Showcase and Awards Ceremony hosted by the NC State Office of Technology Transfer and the Council for Entrepreneurial Development on Dec. 8.

Researchers recognized for patents issued during 2009 were Dr. Orlin Velev, Dr. Ruben Carbonell and Dr. George Roberts of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Dr. Melur Ramasubramanian of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

The four start-up companies honored at the event were founded by College of Engineering faculty.

The companies included GaNDevices, founded by Dr. Doug Barlage of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dr. Mark Johnson of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Genesis Semiconductor, Inc., founded by Dr. Alex Huang of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Ligamar, founded by Carbonell and Dr. Patrick Gurgel of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; and Tec-Cel, Inc., founded by Dr. Peter Fedkiw and Dr. Saad Khan of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Dr. Xiangwu Zhang of the Department of Textile Engineering, Chemistry and Science.]]> http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/news/15325 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Town Crier v2 2009-12-14 Dr. Paul Franzon gave the keynote address at IMAPS 2009, the 42nd International Symposium on Microelectronics.

Franzon's presentation, Creating 3D Specific Systems - Medium and Long Term Perspectives, discussed the system advantages of 3D stacking and integration.  The talk explored application drivers and design for 3D ICs and how interconnect-rich applications especially benefit.

Critical issues include design planning, test management, and thermal management. Application drivers were described with a focus on DSP applications. It was explained how they had developed a CAD environment for 3D design, based largely on extensions to commercial tools. This CAD flow has been used by over 15 teams designing 3DICs. Innovations in this flow include whole-chip thermal analysis, and true 3D design and design planning.

The International Microelectronics And Packaging Society (IMAPS) is the largest society dedicated to the advancement and growth of microelectronics and electronics packaging technologies through professional education. The Society's portfolio of technologies is disseminated through symposia, conferences, workshops, professional development courses and other efforts. IMAPS currently has more than 4,000 members in the United States and more than 4,000 international members around the world.

His research focuses on Topological Analysis of sensor networks and their measurements with applications in detecting and localizing failures. The novelty of the work lies in the application of mathematically abstract subject of Topology into solving some very difficult practical problems in sensor networks.  The salient feature of nodes in a sensor network is their locally limited knowledge and communication capability. Because of this, ensuring robustness and reliability of the network as a whole becomes a challenging task. When it comes to inferring global features of a network, Topology is a very effective tool. Furthermore, topological analysis lends itself to be executed in a distributed manner which makes it particularly useful in the field of sensor networks.

"We assign high dimensional vector spaces to the union of coverage of the sensor network and investigate the presence of holes by analyzing the ranks of certain linear operators defined on the vector spaces," says Chintakunta.  He also presents an efficient, fast and distributed algorithm to localize the holes in the coverage.

Dr. Baliga on his early life: "I grew up in a small village called Jalahalli near Bangalore, India. I obtained my Bachelors degree from IIT-Madras. After that, I was ambitious and wanted to do something that serves humanity. I came to the US in 1969 to do research to fulfill this mission. I completed my PhD at RPI in 1974. During my research at RPI, I developed a new process to grow semiconductor material. Today, all microwave transistors and LEDs are manufactured by using this process."

Regarding his invention of the Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT): "The IGBT is now produced by a dozen companies around the world and is used in regular cars for running the ignition system, electric cars for running electric motors and even in bullet trains. It is used in compact fluorescent lamps to save about 75% of energy. It is used in UPS systems and to control robots in factories. Recently, the IGBT has been used to create portable defibrillators which can save 100,000 lives per year."

On being named one of the Eight Heroes of the Semiconductor Revolution by Scientific American, "I didn't expect it. There are so many thousands and thousands of people who have made contributions in semiconductors. Getting this recognition as one of the Eight Heroes is something special. I got a phone call from the editor saying he heard about a super-transistor called the IGBT and wanted me to contribute an article on the device. When the magazine was published, I read the editorial page and was delightfully surprised to find out that they had named me as one of the eight heroes among the people who were my inspiration when I joined the field."

When asked what advice he would give to people looking to follow him, Baliga says "Be passionate about what you do. Have a mission that excites you. In my case, service to humanity was my mission. And remember to work hard towards your goal."

For a more on Dr. Jayant Baliga including more interview questions and more in-depth responses, read the original article.

The award will run from September 28th, 2009 to July 14th, 2014.

Research Abstract - As part of the fulfillment of the proposed research by the Duke lead team in response to BAA 08-019, NCSU personnel will perform analytical, simulation, design and fabrication tasks. The NCSU effort will focus on the design and fabrication of optical elements, particularly those with near field imaging capability, including near field magnifiers (also known as hyper lenses).  Coordinate transformations that correspond near field optical elements will be examined subject to constraints that lead to less extreme material properties, thus facilitating implementation. Unit cells and layouts will be examined with consideration of sample fabrication and measurement issues, for implementations at frequencies up to and including the infrared range.

The paper, Junction-level Thermal Extraction and Simulation of 3DICs was authored by Samson Melamed, Thorlindur Thorolfsson, Adi Srinivasan, Edmund Cheng, Paul Franzon and Rhett Davis.  Melamed, Thorolfsson, Franzon, and Davis are all with the ECE Department at NC State University.  Srinivasan and Cheng are with Gradient Design Automation.

In 3DICs heat dissipating devices are stacked directly on top of each other leading to a higher heat density than in a comparable 2D chip. 3D integration also moves the majority of active devices further away from the heatsink. This results in a degraded thermal path which makes it more challenging to remove heat from the active devices.

Gradient FireBolt was used to perform an appropriate 3D thermal analysis on a 1024-point, memory-on-logic 3DIC FFT processor for synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The chip was simulated with a spatial resolution of 80 nm, and was modeled to include the effect of each line of interconnect, as well as each via and fill structure exactly as drawn in the layout. Large isolated temperature spikes were found near groups of clock buffers at the edge of the SRAMs on the middle tier.

It was found that lowering the simulation resolution and using composite thermal conductivities failed to accurately predict the location of these tentpoles.

For more information on IEEE 3DIC 2009 visit http://www.3dic-conf.org/.

The award will run from October 1st, 2009 to September 30th, 2010.

Research Abstract - This goal of the proposed work is to initiate a study to investigate high-K dielectrics and metal electrodes as blocking oxides and control gates, respectively. The overall goal is to understand fundamental charge transfer mechanisms through high-K IPD under program/erase (P/E) and retention conditions. These objectives will be met by conducting the following research tasks:  Explore the role of interfaces, i.e. between IPD and charge storage layer and also between IPD and metal control gate and evaluate the impact on P/E and Retention.  The second task is to investigate IPD composition, microstructure, anneals and charges on the P/E and retention characteristics.  This will include single layer IPD vs. multilayer IPD for barrier engineering.  The third task is to explore the role of work function of the control gate work function on erase and retention characteristics; Evaluate electron back tunneling from gate into the floating gate and hole tunneling in the opposite direction.

Masnari received his bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering at Michigan. He was one of 17 Michigan engineering alumni recognized by their departments for their accomplishments at an awards dinner in September.

Masnari was a faculty member and director of the Electron Physics Laboratory at Michigan before coming to NC State in 1979 to take over as head of the Department of Electrical Engineering. In 1988, he became the founding director of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center on Advanced Electronic Materials Processing and the SEMATECH Center of Excellence on Advanced Single Wafer Processing, both at NC State. He was appointed as dean of engineering at NC State in 1996 and remained in that position for 10 years before returning to the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2006.

His research interests include silicon processing technologies and solid-state electronic devices.

Alexander served as director of graduate programs for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at NC State from 1988 to 1997 and from 2001 to 2002. He is also a visiting professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC A&T.

Alexander's research focuses on digital signal processing, genomic signal processing, parallel algorithms and parallel computer architecture. His teaching interests include digital signal processing, application-specific and special purpose computer system architecture and digital system design.

Prior to joining the faculty at NC State, Alexander was professor and chair of the Department of Electrical Engineering at NC A&T from 1976 to 1982. He was a member of the technical staff at Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico from 1964 to 1966 and from 1970 to 1976. He was an electronics officer for the U.S. Air Force from 1966 to 1969.

Alexander is active in professional organizations and has received numerous honors and awards, including the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring. He is the holder of two patents.

Alexander received his B.S. in electrical engineering from NC A&T and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in the same discipline from the University of New Mexico.

College of Engineering News - View the original article

A virtual world may be described as a computer-simulated 3D space where users, through digital representations known as avatars, can meet and interact with others and with content of the world, such as documents. While often used for social or gaming purposes, virtual worlds, like Sun's Wonderland, Linden Lab's Second Life, and others, are being tailored for business-oriented use with a growing number of companies, public sector organizations, and academic institutions in various stages of exploration and investment.

The quality of a virtual world is often described by the degree to which a user feels a sense of "virtual presence" or being "in" the world, said Mitzi Montoya, Zelnak Professor of Marketing Innovation at NC State University's College of Management.

"Developers consider presence to be a desirable characteristic and there is a belief that it is related to performance. However, there is limited evidence to support these views," she said.

"In terms of real business impact, many unanswered questions remain, including whether virtual worlds improve performance or the experiences of remote collaborators," said Anne P. Massey, Dean's Research Professor at IU's Kelley School of Business.

For business, creating or investing dollars on worlds that increase presence is premature without evidence that presence and collaborative performance are related, Massey added.

"Being able to measure and understand the role of virtual presence in collaborative processes is an important foundational step to assessing real business impact," she said.

Montoya and Massey, along with Jeanne Johnston, assistant professor of kinesiology in IU's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and Michael Devetsikiotis, professor of electrical and computer engineering in NC State's College of Engineering, will conduct a series of experiments to develop a scale to specifically measure 'Collaborative Virtual Presence' (CVP) and assess its relationship to performance. As part of scale validation efforts, supplementary physiological data will be collected by Johnston.

"In the real world, people can have physiological reactions, such as increased heart rate, to events," Massey said. "It seems reasonable to expect that similar events in a virtual world may produce similar responses, particularly if one feels a greater sense of presence."

Devetsikiotis said that from a bottom-line perspective, developers of virtual worlds as well as the businesses that deploy them need a better understanding of how design characteristics, like presence, influence performance.

"This project is a step in that direction," he said.

To speak with Montoya or Devetsikiotis, contact Anna Rzewnicki at amrzewni@gw.ncsu.edu. To speak with Massey or Johnston, contact Tracy James, IU University Communications, at 812-855-0084 or traljame@indiana.edu.

Sponsored by the NC State University Graduate School, the Nancy G. Pollock Thesis and Dissertation Award program is designed to reward outstanding scholarly research and to demonstrate the positive impact of graduate-level research on both the economy of North Carolina and the quality of life for all its citizens. The Dissertation Award carries a $1000 stipend while the Thesis Award carries a $500 stipend.

Xing's dissertation, entitled Modeling, Design, and Analysis on the Resilience of Large-scale Wireless Multi-hop Networks, concerned the vulnerability of wireless multi-hop networks and how best to analyze the resilience of them.  He proposed a novel semi-Markov node behavior model to analyze the topological survivability of wireless networks in the presence of both node misbehaviors and node failures.

Chintapatla's thesis, entitled Electrostatic MEMs Fabry-Perot Modulators in the Visible Spectrum and Electrothermal Wrinkling of Bilayer Thin Films, concerned the fabrication and micromachining of Fabry Perot cavities to create light modulators, as well as the formation of periodic series wrinkles and how they could be controlled.

During the last decade, many new concepts have been proposed for improving the performance of power rectifiers and transistors. The results of this research are dispersed in the technical literature among journal articles and abstracts of conferences. Consequently, the information is not readily available to researchers and practicing engineers in the power device community. There is no cohesive treatment of the ideas to provide an assessment of the relative merits of the ideas.

"Advanced Power Rectifier Concepts" provides an in-depth treatment of the physics of operation of advanced power rectifiers. Analytical models for explaining the operation of all the advanced power rectifier devices will be developed. The results off numerical simulations will be provided to provide additional insight into the device physics and validate the analytical models. The results of two-dimensional simulations will be provided to corroborate the analytical models and provide greater insight into the device operation.

Huiyang Zhou received the bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Xian Jiaotong University, China, in 1992 and the Ph.D. degree in computer engineering from North Carolina State University in 2003. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State University. Between 2003 and 2009, he was an assistant professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Central Florida. His research focuses on high performance microarchitecture, low-power design, architecture support for system dependability, and backend compiler optimization. He is a recipient of NSF CAREER award and a senior member of the IEEE.

Before joining North Carolina State University as an Associate Professor in 2009, Dr. Jiang was an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami, where he led a group of researchers and graduate students who worked on various problems towards a sustainable energy infrastructure. The goal of his research is to explore new ways to develop a smart electric grid of the future that would replace the nation's current aging, vulnerable, and inefficient system. One of the research focuses is to explore new approaches to integrate environmentally clean, distributed energy resources into existing electric power distribution systems via smart microgrids by employing advanced sensing, communications, computing, control, power electronics and intelligent technologies.

The papers receiving these awards were judged based on their quantitative and qualitative classifications as well as comments provided by the program committee reviewers, their final classification as full paper, and their oral presentation at the conference.

Paper Abstract - Service oriented architectures (SOA) and XML-based Web Services have become the technology of choice in enterprise networks. These networks support multiple services and are typically architected in multiple computing tiers, with a main service tier for the business logic and a separate, "offload" tier, for, say, the CPU-intensive XML processing. The offload tier is typically populated by clusters of middleware appliances, usually hardware-assisted devices that are optimized for their tasks. Service differentiation refers to the generic problem of managing the enterprise network resources in order to achieve desired performance objectives on a per service basis. In this paper, we define a SAA/SDA (Service Activation Algorithm/Service Deactivation Algorithm) that manages the CPU allocation in the appliance tier, in order to provide service differentiation. The main design objective of SAA/SDA is to overcome the disadvantages of the present known, static solutions. We analyze the performance of SAA/SDA via simulations.

"Richard Hodson has designed a completely new web site for [our facility] ...a huge task task since the old web site was not updated for many, many years. Thanks to his dedicated effort and creativity the facility now has a state-of-the-art web site. During this effort, I thoroughly enjoyed working with Mr. Hodson.  He was prompt, highly competent in what he did and extremely pleasant to work with. [We] believe the website is a key element in our success since external users find us through our web-site, [providing us] a large fraction of our revenues."

"I am a retired professor from the ECE Department at NC State. I have had a few computer problems... the most recent was an infection by the confikker worm... I first tried Microsoft's free online virus removal help, then I contacted Brian, who guided me through a successful removal.  This is but one example of Brian's competence. Throughout all of my interactions with Brian, he has been prompt, courteous, patient, and competent. He has solved every problem quickly and correctly. Given the degree to which we now depend on our computers, folks such as Brian are worth their weights in gold."

"Joe has sustained a high level of professionalism all these years as a lab technician -- he is a great resource for students, staff and faculty in processing, materials growth and photolithography... Last year when one of our faculty members was called to serve in Iraq, Joe became indispensable in preserving the continuity for the experimental research projects. [Joe] saves the university thousands of dollars each year by repairing complex cleanroom equipment and instrumentation. His good attitude and professionalism are fantastic and motivating for professors and students alike."

Is there an ECE employee that you find deserves this award? Nominate them! It only takes a few moments and helps us to recognize our outstanding employees. Details and the nomination form can be found here: http://www7.acs.ncsu.edu/hr/benefits/pwa.asp 

The endowed professorship was established by Thomas R. McPherson Jr., an NC State Distinguished Engineering Alumnus. McPherson holds two electrical engineering degrees from NC State, earning his B.S. in 1976 and his M.S. the following year. He has founded and led several successful high-tech companies resulting in one IPO and two mergers. The companies that he helped establish and make successful include Picture Element Limited, Network Equipment Technologies, Rapid City Communications, Hatteras Networks, Inc., and most recently Cognio, Inc., which was sold to Cisco Systems. He is a member of the advisory board for the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program and sits on the NC State Engineering Foundation Board of Directors.

Miller also serves as professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, vice provost for Distance Education and Learning Technology Applications (DELTA), director of the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program and associate dean of engineering. As vice provost for DELTA, Miller is responsible for strategy, deployment, and implementation of the university's learning technologies and distance education programs.

Miller is also a member of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers at NC State and was the recipient of the 1995 Joseph M. Biedenbach Outstanding Engineering Educator award from IEEE. The United States Distance Learning Association recently honored Miller with its award for Outstanding Leadership by an Individual in the field of Distance Learning. He had previously received the state award from the North Carolina Distance Learning Association.

Miller, a Kinston native, received his B.A. in mathematics and chemistry in 1976, his M.S. in biomedical engineering and mathematics in 1980 and his doctorate in biomedical engineering and mathematics in 1982, all from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

College of Engineering News - View the original article

This popular event will feature free food & beverages (BBQ, fried chicken, and all the fixin's, a vegetarian spread, ice cream, tea, lemonade, etc.), games, music, prizes, and much more!

While attending the event, students are encouraged to participate in the special "scavenger hunt", designed to showcase the numerous student organizations available within the departments.

Students will also have the opportunity to interact with representatives of event sponsors including AT&T, BCBS of NC, Cisco Systems, NetApp, Norfolk Southern, SAS and Tekelec.

A variety of special prizes are planned including a Netbook, GPS, restaurant gift cards, t-shirts and much more!

The event has been planned and coordinated by student leaders in the Engineers Council, as well as CSC & ECE student organizations.  Special thanks to all our student leaders who have worked tirelessly over the summer to make this annual tradition a success.

Department of Computer Science News - View the original article

Life was not easy for Dr. John Muth during his recent tour of duty as a U.S. Navy reservist in Iraq.

For 12 months, the NC State electrical and computer engineering professor negotiated Iraq's violence and sticky politics as he led a team of 30 civilians, military personnel and translators that provided advice and support to the nation's Ministry of the Interior. The ministry will eventually take charge of all internal security in Iraq, allowing the Iraqi army to focus on external threats.

His efforts did not go unnoticed. Earlier this spring, Muth received a Bronze Star for his service, which included performing more than 100 missions in dangerous situations, installing a system of human rights inspections at pre-trial detention centers and setting up the ministry's court systems.

The work was markedly different from his research and teaching responsibilities on NC State's Centennial Campus, but there were some similarities, too.

"What I was doing in Iraq was problem solving," he said, "and ultimately engineering is about solving problems."

Muth's work in Iraq covered a range of activities. In addition to advising senior Iraqi leadership at the Ministry of Interior, he wrote briefings and reports and managed his staff of lawyers, police officers, strategic planners and media experts. He also met and dined with Iraqi generals at their homes, rare honors for a coalition member.

The job had its pluses and minuses. On one hand, Muth was able to interact with Iraqis every day, something his base-bound peers rarely got to do. On the other hand, wading into the ministry's politics was a complicated and dangerous assignment.

"There is a lot of assassination, murder and kidnapping that can be either ideologically or financially motivated," he said. "A lot of the people I worked with were specifically targeted by insurgents. The courage of the Iraqis I worked with who were trying to improve their country was impressive."

In between all that, Muth kept up with the work of his students back at NC State. During various breaks in his tour, he participated in six defenses of master's theses and doctoral dissertations. He also reviewed papers bound for scientific journals.

Muth's military career began in the 1980s when he attended college on an ROTC scholarship. He was commissioned into the U.S. Navy and served in the submarine force for five years before leaving active duty and serving as a reservist.

Then, on Dec. 19, 2007, he received a phone call. He was to report for active duty in two weeks.

That notification changed his life, but he credits NC State faculty for smoothing the transition. As his graduate students continued to focus on their work, other faculty stepped in to provide support with research publications and presentations.

"Having my colleagues help with these mentoring roles is very important for the students' development," he said.

Muth has since returned to Raleigh and has resumed his teaching and research in nanoelectronics and photonics, for which he has received awards from the National Academy of Engineering, the Office of Naval Research and other agencies. He holds six patents, and he has more than 90 journal publications to his credit.

Now he has a Bronze Star, an honor rarely awarded to Naval officers because relatively few of them have been assigned to combat zones in Iraq.

"It can get hectic juggling different responsibilities, but I like keeping busy," Muth said. "I enjoy the intellectual challenges of the university and the academic freedom to research subjects I choose. With the military, it is a new challenge every day and I like the sense of higher purpose of being part of national defense."

College of Engineering News - View the original article

Dr. Steer's first book he has had published is called Microwave and RF Design: A Systems Approach.  The independent modules in this book can be employed for a single course, or the same textbook can carry the student and instructor through multiple courses in microwave and radio frequency design. This book is a comprehensive introduction to RF and microwave design with a systems first approach. However, this does not mean that components are ignored. The book is arranged in five modules that are independent but do build on each other and are best taught in sequence. Design examples are used throughout the book, and many of them incorporate design tradeoffs that are only appreciated in the context of a specific design. The book is also characterized by design emphasis with discussion of manufacturability and practical design decisions.

His second book, Multifunctional Adaptive Microwave Circuits and Systems, is a state-of-the-art survey on Multi-functional, Adaptive Radio Radar and Sensor, or MARRS, systems and summarizes the findings of a five year project entitled MARRS: Multifunctional Adaptive Radio Radar and Sensors that ran from 2001 to 2006.  The book presents a systematic approach to the system level design required to develop MARRS technology. Developments of the most viable tunable and reconfigurable components are described. These are Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) switches and varactors. The book describes electrically-tunable varactors made from ferroelectric materials. Applications in tunable switches, tunable filters, tunable matching networks, and tunable antennas are presented. Concepts and architectures for RF transmitters designed to optimize performance by adapting to variable loads, power levels, and linearity requirements are explored, as well as reconfigurable and tunable RF filters using both semiconductor and ferroelectric varactors. The book also discusses retrodirective antenna arrays, Finally, a multifunction radar, communication and radiometry system that utilizes a retro-directive antenna array is described.

Building on the success of the previous two editions Foundations of Interconnect and Microstrip Design offers extensive new, updated and revised material based upon the latest research. In addition to the comprehensive information on designing microstrip circuits there is an entirely new chapter on coplanar waveguide (CPW) design and substantial new material on designing gigahertz-rate digital interconnects both on and off chip.  Strongly design-oriented, this third edition provides the reader with a fundamental understanding of this fast expanding field making it a definitive source for professional engineers and researchers and an indispensable reference for senior students in electronic engineering.

Dr. Trussell's book, titled Fundamentals of Digital Imaging, focuses on the multi-billion dollar industry of digital imaging technology.  This industry is an active research area with applications in our everyday lives in products such as digital cameras, scanners, printers and display systems. This book presents an introduction to the fundamentals of digital imaging, with emphasis on the basic operations of image capture and display of monochrome and colour images. This book also balances the mathematical description of real problems with practical examples.

Dr. Gianluca Lazzi, professor of electrical and computer engineering and an international authority on bioelectromagnetics and retinal prosthetics, serves as principal investigator of NC State's work on the project. NC State's research involves performing electromagnetic and thermal modeling of the artificial retina to help determine how much energy can be used to stimulate remaining non-diseased cells.

The Artificial Retina Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, is a collaborative, multi-institutional effort to develop an implantable microelectronic retinal prosthesis, or artificial retina, that restores useful vision to people blinded by retinal diseases. The ultimate goal of the project is to restore reading ability, facial recognition, and unaided mobility in people with retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration.

Five national laboratories, four universities, and a private company have contributed to the research.

College of Engineering News - View the original article

Each year, Princeton Review staffers spend countless hours poring over survey results from students and faculty at more than 2,500 North American colleges and universities. And now, the results are in - NC State offers its students the sixth-best value of any public university located in the United States or Canada.

"I think students recognize that NC State offers the kind of hands-on learning opportunities and relevant experience that will enable them to be valuable contributors to society upon their graduation," NC State chancellor James Woodward said. "In a time of economic uncertainty and technological evolution, NC State remains uniquely positioned to produce future leaders with the knowledge and the skills to help solve the world's problems.

"It's not surprising students would seek out the opportunities available to them at NC State in hopes of reaching their personal, educational and career goals."

In its profile on NC State, the Review praises the university not only for the academic quality of its student applicants, but their extracurricular activities and altruistic endeavors as well.

No other North Carolina-based institution - public or private - made the Review's "Top 10" list, featured in the 2010 edition of the Review's popular guidebook, The Best 371 Colleges.

In addition to being one of the nation's best values, NC State also received high scores based on admissions selectivity as well as the university's "green rating," a measure of the university's commitment to environmentally related policies, practices and education.

"It's always nice for NC State to earn this kind of recognition," Woodward said. "The true measure of a university is its people, and I truly believe that our faculty, students, staff and alumni are among the nation's best."

The Princeton Review is a New York City-based education services company known for its annual rankings based on surveys conducted of higher education institutions and of students attending the schools, in addition to its test-prep courses, college and graduate school admission services, books, and education programs.

By David Pond, Web Communication - View the original article

An internationally renowned expert in the fields of microwave magnetics, wireless communications and nano-photonics, Professor Stancil is currently a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University where he has served as a faculty member since 1986. His tenure at Carnegie Mellon has included appointments as Associate Department Head and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs for their College of Engineering. Dr. Stancil's first academic appointment was at NC State where he served as an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering.  His background also includes appointments at California Institute of Technology, Applied Electro-Optics Corporation and the MIT Lincoln Laboratory as well as significant experience with industry and government partnerships. These efforts have resulted in fifteen patent applications in the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia.

Professor Stancil has received numerous research and education awards and has served as PI or co-PI on more than $15 M in grants and contracts throughout his career. The author of two textbooks and numerous publications, Professor Stancil is a strong proponent of interdisciplinary research. He also includes innovation in education among his areas of great interest with his work in the use of remote laboratories for undergraduate instruction recognized as a finalist for the 1995 Smithsonian Computerworld Award.

The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering warmly welcomes Dr. Stancil to the Wolfpack family and looks forward to his leadership and commitment to excellence over the coming years.

The Renewable Electric Energy Systems (REES) undergraduate concentration will be open for enrollment to both new and current undergraduate students majoring in the Electrical Engineering degree program. The new concentration enriches the current electrical engineering curriculum with coursework in electromechanical energy conversion, renewable electric power systems, power electronics, and power transmission and distribution systems.

In addition to the new undergraduate concentration, the ECE department will also begin offering a REES graduate certificate program that will be open to both degree and non-degree students, providing them with the opportunity to develop expertise in renewable electric energy systems and advanced electric power grid technology in addition to their major area of graduate study.

Last fall the National Science Foundation (NSF) provided funding for the establishment of an Engineering Research Center (ERC) and created the Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center at North Carolina State University. One of the center's key responsibilities is to educate a diverse group of adaptive, creative, globally connected and innovative graduates for the green energy industry through a continuum of educational programs that span from middle school through the doctoral level.

"We are thrilled to start offering an undergraduate concentration in Renewable Electric Energy," said FREEDM Systems Center College Education Program Director Dr. Mesut Baran. "Students who complete this concentration will have a working knowledge of current and emerging electric power generation technologies such as photovoltaic arrays, wind turbines and fuel cells along with understanding how to conduct system impact studies to assess the interconnection requirements for a given renewable electrical energy generation system."

Currently efforts are underway for large-scale utilization of Distributed Renewable Energy Resources (DRER) to significantly increase the use of renewable sources (solar, wind, geo-thermal, hydro, and ocean tidal) to break the nations heavy dependence on carbon based fuel. The widespread use of DRER at the residential level is a major paradigm shift for the electric power industry, moving away from today's centralized power generation paradigm to one of distributed generation. It is widely recognized by both the electric utilities and the policy makers that for this to happen, the current power grid must be revised considerable to be more "smart".

For additional program enrollment information please contact Amy Bailey, Education Program Administrative Support at (919) 513-3435 or ahbailey@ncsu.edu. For Renewable Electric Energy Systems undergraduate curriculum information please visit http://www.ncsu.edu/uap/academic-standards/RR/curricula/engineering/14eer.html.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $1.3 million to faculty in North Carolina State University's Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems Center to improve the batteries that help power plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.

The research is being led by Dr. Xiangwu Zhang, assistant professor of textile engineering in NC State's College of Textiles. Drs. Alex Huang, the FREEDM Systems Center director, Peter S. Fedkiw and Saad A. Khan, all of the College of Engineering at NC State, are also participating in the study.

The grant was part of the federal agency's recent $11 million investment in research, development and demonstration of projects that involve electric drive vehicle battery technologies.

The grant will support research into the development and use of electrospinning technology to integrate lithium alloy and carbon into novel composite nanofiber anodes, which hold more energy, cost less and tolerate abuse better than materials found in existing batteries. Nanofiber anodes can be easily produced in large numbers, which could help reduce the demand for imported petroleum, decrease emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases, and enable the U.S. transportation industry to sustain a strong position in the global marketplace.

Formed in 2008 by a five-year, $18.5 million Engineering Research Center grant from the National Science Foundation, the FREEDM Systems Center, headquartered on NC State's Centennial Campus, is developing ways to speed renewable electric-energy technologies into every home and business. The center's research, education and outreach team includes energy experts from seven universities in the United States and Europe.

Dr. Subhashish Bhattacharya has been renewed as an Assistant Professor.  He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 2003.  His research interests include Electric Vehicle Systems, Power Electronics, and Power Systems.

Dr. Huaiyu Dai is promoted and tenured as an Associate Professor.  He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University in 2002.  His research interests include Adaptive Signal Processing, Digital Communications, Digital Signal Processing, and Multidimensional Signal Processing.  He was awarded the IEEE VTC Service Award in 2005.

Dr. Do Young Eun is promoted and tenured as an Associate Professor.  He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2003.  His research interests include network modeling and analysis, ad-hoc/sensor networks, congestion control, resource allocation. He is a member of Technical Program Committee of various conferences including IEEE INFOCOM, ICC, Globecom, ACM MobiHoc, IEEE IPCCC, and ICCCN. He received the Best Paper Awards in the IEEE ICCCN 2005 and IEEE IPCCC 2006, and the National Science Foundation CAREER Award 2006. He supervised and co-authored a paper that received the Best Student Paper Award in ACM MobiCom 2007.

Dr. Peiji Zhao has been promoted to an Associate Research Professor.  He received his Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 2000.

Eleven college students from three universities were finalists in Walt Disney Imagineering's 18th ImagiNations Design Competition. ImagiNations is a program designed and sponsored by Walt Disney Imagineering, the creative arm of all Disney Parks and Resorts worldwide, to encourage students and professionals from a diverse array of backgrounds and skills to consider careers in creative and technical fields including digital arts, engineering, and next-generation interactivity. Teams demonstrate their creative, technical, artistic, and business skills by designing a ride, attraction, hotel, or a land within an existing Disney theme park or resort. Participants work for several months on their concepts and presentations, which are evaluated by a team of Imagineers in California. This year more than 130 teams from around the world submitted entries for competition.

First Place and "Best in Show" was awarded to students Raymond Scanlon, Vincent J. Logozio, Elissa Hogan and David Lester.  While sponsored by Rowan University, team participants came together from Rowan University, Rutgers University and The College of New Jersey.  Their project, "Disney's Spaceport," is a complete and highly interactive theme park set in the mid 28th century, with an entirely original storyline and characters. Vincent J. Logozio was also awarded the Marty Sklar Award, for overall outstanding achievement in creativity, innovation, and leadership. In addition, all four of the students have been offered internships.

Second Place was awarded to North Carolina State University's "Mickey's Quest To Magma Mountain," a motion simulator thrill ride that features a circular seating arrangement for an immersive 360-degree, 3D experience. The four members of the North Carolina State University team are Steven Varela, Corban Prim, Ashley Wagner and Morgan McCormick.

California State University at Fullerton garnered Third Place with students Benjamin Matsuya, Calixto Ortiz and Natalie Berger's "Operation SNAP: Destination Dragon." This attraction is an action/adventure ride utilizing mounted cameras that follows the story of an absent-minded professor in search of a legendary Chinese dragon.

The university of each finalist team received a $1000 grant from Walt Disney Imagineering.

"The idea behind ImagiNations is to identify and bring in a new and diverse talent base to Walt Disney Imagineering," said Marty Sklar, Executive Vice President, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts and Imagineering Ambassador, who started the program in 1991. "We're looking for people from universities and professional organizations with different backgrounds and cultures to better understand and reflect the diverse array of Guests we entertain in our Disney Parks."

The three teams of finalists visited Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale from June 2 to 11 to complete their projects, make professional presentations to the judging panel, interview for internships and participate in the awards ceremony.

The competition also provides participants a showcase for their talents, while gaining practical knowledge in design.  There is also an opportunity to earn internships.  While a position at Walt Disney Imagineering is often found on surveys of "dream jobs," the company uses ImagiNations as a way to reach out to the widest possible talent pool for its future staff. All qualified applicants are considered for internships, and several finalists and a few non-finalists have been offered summer internships.

While the projects and concepts presented are not intended to be built by Disney, they are a way for the entrants to demonstrate their skill and creative abilities.  In consideration for the opportunities provided by Imagineering, submissions become the sole property of Walt Disney Imagineering and Imagineering retains all rights to use and/or display the submissions and the materials contained in them.

During their two weeks at Imagineering, the students meet and network with the technical and creative Imagineers responsible for Disney's global theme parks and attractions located in California, Florida, Paris, Tokyo and Hong Kong.

Disney Imagineers are famous for telling stories through fully dimensional and immersive attractions and experiences.  The judges are looking in particular for the ability of technology, architecture, costumes, transportation, and attractions to support the story - and participants are advised to "begin with a great story before developing anything else."

The judges apply the same criteria to the entries that they would to their own work - reviewing whether the concept is appealing, exciting, relevant and well researched; whether it provides an engaging guest experience; the technical and creative innovation; the quality of the presentation; and the ability of the attraction to demonstrate respect and inclusion for the diverse array of families who visit Walt Disney Parks & Resorts all over the world.

Walt Disney Imagineering

Walt Disney Imagineering is the unique innovative organization that creates - from concept through construction - all Disney theme parks, resorts, attractions, cruise ships, real estate devel­opments, and regional entertainment venues worldwide. The name Imagineering combines imagination with engineering.

Imagineering's unique strength comes from the teamwork and syntheses of creative and technical professionals representing more than 140 diverse disciplines including artists, architects, engineers, writers, machinists, landscape designers, model makers, sound technicians, carpenters, producers, accountants, filmmakers, schedulers, estimators and more.

More Information about the ImagiNations competition can be found at http://disney.go.com/disneycareers/imaginations/.

Mickey's Quest To Magma Mountain - North Carolina State University

Mickey's Quest To Magma Mountain is a motion simulator thrill ride that features a circular seating arrangement for an immersive 360-degree, 3D experience. Each time guests ride, they will get a new view of the action and hear unique dialogue; but no matter what, each guest will always experience the full story. Mickey's Quest to Magma Mountain targets guests of all ages, is wheelchair accessible, and has been designed to be compatible with Disney's "FastPass" system.

Steven Varela is a graduating senior at North Carolina State University with a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Steven is graduating Cum Laude, and won First Place in the Golden Soldering Iron Competition, a sophomore level design competition with his homemade magnetic coil launcher. He was also the head of a small virtual company in Second Life, which he used to pay for his college textbooks. Steven's hobbies and interests include scuba diving, guitar, spray painting, racquetball, video games, pottery, drawing digital art, freshwater fish keeping, and anime.

Corban Prim is a junior majoring in Art and Design at North Carolina State University. Corban has served as Actor/Cameraman/Editor for "TVOneLife," (a TV show in Raleigh), as a photographer and videographer for Moore County Central Office (Moore County Schools) and as an animator for New Bern Craven Arts Council, a fifteen-person, multidisciplinary team that was commissioned to create tourism animations in 2008.   Hobbies and interests include movies, making videos/animations/FX, video games, and basketball.  Corban is also president of "Charisma Campus Ministry."

Ashley Wagner is a junior majoring in Art and Design at North Carolina State University with a passion for drawing figures and facial expressions with a story in mind. She works with mixed media (both hand-drawn and digital.) Ashley is a College of Design (NCSU) Student Ambassador and an animator for New Bern Craven Arts Council. Hobbies and interests include biking, movies, dancing, traveling to new places, and voice impersonations.

Morgan McCormick is a 2009 graduate from North Carolina State University with a B.A. in English, a concentration in Creative Writing and a minor in Japanese.  During his tenure at State he was a Senior Staff Writer for the university newspaper The Technician in their Arts & Entertainment section for three years. He has been involved with various organizations on campus ranging from Arts NC State to the GLBT center to Presbyterian Campus Ministry to the Society for Collegiate Journalists, as well as being a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honors society. He is currently a co-Host on the iTunes entertainment podcast MovieChatter and its mother show, RandomChatter, as well as House Manager of NC State's arts theatre, Stewart Theatre. Morgan's hobbies and interests include acting in short films, postmodernist literature (specifically Cormac McCarthy), practicing guitar, studying Japanese, making mixed CDs, reviewing films, and watching anime and cancelled TV shows.

For more information, please contact: 
Frank Reifsnyder - Walt Disney Imagineering, (818) 544-2142
Tim Choy, Peter Goldman, Davidson & Choy Publicity (323) 954-7510 954-7510

During his extensive academic career, Trew has spent a total of 11 years serving as the head of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) at three universities:  NC State, Virginia Tech, and Case Western Reserve University.  At each institution, he focused on building the research programs, especially in emerging areas; recruiting diverse, high-quality faculty; strengthening student organizations and their participation in department activities; and providing opportunities for undergraduate research.

Trew has also been a leader in government research.  As director of research at the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD), he oversaw the $1.3-billion-per-year basic research programs, including the DOD University Research Initiative, and represented DOD in many interagency activities, such as the National Nanotechnology Initiative.  In addition, Trew has experience as a program manager in the U.S. Army Research Office.

"The Directorate for Engineering is extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Trew," said NSF Assistant Director for Engineering Thomas Peterson.  "He has demonstrated both extensive leadership within the professional community and deep, long-term engagement in academic and government research and administration.  These experiences will enable valuable connections between NSF and the ECCS research and education community."

Trew's research focuses on nanoelectronics and microwave, millimeter wave, and terahertz solid state devices and systems.  He is also interested in photonic, radio frequency, analog, and digital devices, and in power electronics and power systems.  He has authored or co-authored more than 170 publications and 20 book chapters, and he holds nine patents.

Trew has received many awards for distinguished teaching and scholarship, including the 1998 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Distinguished Educator Award and the 2001 IEEE-USA Harry Diamond Memorial Award.  He is a Fellow of the IEEE and is currently serving as editor-in-chief of the IEEE Proceedings.  He was awarded a B.S. degree from Kettering University and earned an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, all in electrical engineering.

ECCS addresses fundamental research issues underlying device and component technologies, power, controls, computation, networking, communications, and cyber technologies.  ECCS supports the integration and networking of intelligent systems principles at multiple scales for applications in healthcare, disaster mitigation, energy, telecommunications, environment, manufacturing, and other systems-related areas.  ECCS research and education investments emphasize interdisciplinary collaboration and the convergence of technologies to take on major technological challenges for the next generation of innovative devices and systems.

- Cecile J. Gonzalez, NSF, cjgonzal@nsf.gov

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering. In fiscal year (FY) 2009, its budget is $9.5 billion, which includes $3.0 billion provided through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NSF funds reach all 50 states through grants to over 1,900 universities and institutions. Each year, NSF receives about 44,400 competitive requests for funding, and makes over 11,500 new funding awards. NSF also awards over $400 million in professional and service contracts yearly.

The Wolf was pictured on a test module designed and built under the direction of Dr. Paul Franzon of the ECE department as part of the Air Force Research Labs Space Avionics Experiment.  The module implements a high speed communications channel and uses the Applique Sensor Interface Module (ASIM) to communicate test results to the satellite.  The module is essentially a test case for the ASIM's space plug-and-play avionics implementation which can potentially allow NASA to set up and launch space vehicles in a matter days instead of months.

Adjunct Professor Dr. John Wilson, Ph.D. recipient Jian Xu, Post-Doctoral Research Associate Dr. Steve Lipa, and students Akalu Lentiro Lammade and Matthew Hamlett contributed to the project.

TacSat-3 features three revolutionary trials: the Raytheon Company-built Advanced Responsive Tactically Effective Military Imaging Spectrometer hyperspectral imager, the Office of Naval Research's Satellite Communications Package, and the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Avionics Experiment. This trio of payloads will offer real-time imagery (within 10 minutes of collection), sea-based information transmitted from ocean buoys and plug-and-play avionics to assist the warfighter in keeping one step ahead of the adversary.

The Centennial Science Center, a privately developed two-story facility, will house corporate partners and university laboratories, including the National Science Foundation (NSF) Engineering Research Center for Future Renewable Electric Energy Delivery and Management (FREEDM) Systems.

The 72,000-square-foot structure will have office and lab space, and will be developed and managed by the Keystone Corporation, an international real estate development firm. Similar to other private development projects on Centennial Campus, the land on which the property will be developed will be leased. The $17 million facility will be built on a site at the corner of Varsity Drive and Main Campus Drive. Construction is expected to begin in June and should be complete in the summer of 2010. No state-appropriated funds will be used toward development of the building.

Approximately 20,000-square-feet of space will be occupied by the FREEDM Center, which is the first NSF-funded engineering research center to focus on revolutionizing the country's power grid by integrating it with new, alternative energy technologies, such as wind and solar. The center is partnering with universities, industry and national laboratories in 28 states and nine countries, and it is being supported by an initial five-year $18.5 million grant from NSF, along with an additional $10 million in institutional support and industry membership fees. The goal of the consortium is to decentralize the nation's century-old power grid so that a new power system can enable consumers to generate their energy from renewable sources and sell excess energy to the power companies.

Under the leadership of the center's director, Dr. Alex Huang, Progress Energy Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, researchers plan to develop the system based on breakthrough power semiconductor and power electronics technology, advanced energy storage technology and state-of-the art digital communication technology.

"The Centennial Science Center is an important new addition to Centennial Campus," said NC State Chancellor James L. Oblinger. "With our continued focus on collaborating with our corporate and institutional partners to develop new technologies in smart grid energy, the Science Center will be the prime location for that effort. For example, we intend to develop a one-megawatt green energy hub as part of the building that will serve as a test-bed for the FREEDM Center's research efforts and demonstrate the technology's potential."

"We're very excited about this event," says Dr. Louis Martin-Vega, dean of NC State's College of Engineering. "This building provides a cornerstone for establishing North Carolina as a leader in 21st century energy technologies and turning concepts into reality to benefit not only our state but our nation and the world."

Centennial Campus is a 1,334-acre multi-use research and education campus and is home to 66 corporate, institutional and governmental partners. Created in 1984, the campus also holds two top university programs (Engineering and Textiles), along with more than 75 university research centers, institutes, laboratory and departmental units. The campus also contains a public middle school, residential units, greenway trails, fishing pier and lake, and an 18-hole public championship golf course, which will open in July. Future development includes the James B. Hunt Jr. library and additional office and lab buildings.

Among his most notable contributions in the past five years was the demonstration that implantable miniature antennas at frequencies between 1 and 3 GHz can be successfully employed in telemetry systems for high-resolution retinal prosthesis to restore partial vision to the blind. In the field of computational bioelectromagnetics, Dr. Lazzi's work has ranged from the development of models and methods for safety assessment of electromagnetic and wireless devices to models and methods for medical applications, including neural stimulation. The goal of this work is to reduce the electrical current needed for neural stimulation and achieve high-resolution vision.

Dr. Lazzi has published 37 refereed journal articles, 96 conference papers and six refereed invited book papers. He has produced six invention disclosures and has given 20 refereed invited presentations. While at NC State, he has graduated eight Ph.D. students and nine M.S. students. Dr. Lazzi has received more than $5.4 million in external funding for research projects. He is a past recipient of an NSF CAREER Award, the URSI Young Scientist Award and the ALCOA Foundation Engineering Research Achievement Award.

NanoDays partners include NC State Nano Initiative, NC Science Olympiad, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC Museum of Life and Sciences, Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, and the Nanotechnology Informal Science Education Network.

View the NanoDays photo gallery.

The federal government, hoping to soon regulate greenhouse gas emissions, is actively pushing for more plug-in development.

Barack Obama hopes to put one million plug-ins on American roads by 2015. His stimulus plan grabbed $2 billion for battery development, and several car companies plan to launch lines of plug-in hybrids.

However, the large batteries are expensive, and GM's plug-in, the Volt, will sell for around $40,000, double the price of gasoline-electric hybrids.

"Plug-ins are not the perfect solution, they are not going to be the cheapest," said Ewan Pritchard, manager of NC State's Advanced Transportation Energy Center, who has converted conventional buses to plug-in hybrids.

Richard Lowenthal, founder and CEO of Coulomb Technologies, Inc, which sells charging stations, added that only one-fifth of the 250 million cars in America will have access to a garage area for charge.

The good news is, the United States should have plenty of electricity in reserve to power the plug-in cars.

Members of one NC State engineering student group spend a lot of time at the pool.

They're not working on their tans. They're testing their underwater robot.

Every summer since 2005, the NC State Underwater Robotics Club has entered a robot submarine in an international underwater vehicle competition in San Diego, Calif. The event, put on by the Association for Unmanned Systems International (AUVSI), requires each robot to navigate an underwater obstacle course that tests the robot's vision, acoustics and positioning systems.

Club members work all year to get their robot ready for the competition, but the experience stays with them past graduation. The club alumni list is peppered with students who have gone on to well-known companies and top-notch graduate programs.

"The club is a great resume builder," said president Brooks Stephenson, a junior in electrical engineering. "We've had former club members go on to get great jobs at places like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman."

Still, club members have a competitive streak. Members hope to score a top-five finish at this year's competition, which pits NC State's robots against those from dozens of universities all over the world. To do that, the club is building a new vehicle that's lighter and more efficient than its predecessor, which is being retired after three years of service.

The club is primarily affiliated with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, but it also draws mechanical engineering, nuclear engineering and computer science students. Every Monday and Wednesday night, the group gets together in Burlington Labs to hash out ideas, work on design and construction and, eventually, test the robot in campus pools.

"I think people are interested in joining the club because it gives real-life experience and really helps to solidify the things you may have learned in the classroom," Stephenson said. "It also gives you the chance to learn things that you may see in your classes later on, so you'll already be familiar with them."

The club began in 2004 when a small group of friends teamed up with Vortex HC, LLC, a Morrisville-based robotics company, to build a competition vehicle for the following year's AUVSI event. Their first design, called Seawolf I, suffered some electronic problems and didn't make the final round, but in practice rounds it turned heads with its acrobatic flips and barrel rolls. It was featured in the magazines Robot, Make and Servo.

The next year, the club began to work on a second vehicle that improved upon Seawolf I. The group gave Seawolf II (video) simpler controls, a triangular chassis, separate power and electronics tubes, a Windows operating system and streamlined acoustic  navigations. Seawolf II served as the competition vehicle for three years; its best showing at AUVSI was a ninth-place finish in 2006.

2006 NCSU Underwater Robotics Video

Seawolf III, which will debut this summer, is under construction now and will employ a highly efficient main computer augmented by a series of microcontrollers. This upgrade makes the new vehicle much lighter than its predecessor and addresses past issues with battery life and overheating.

The team hopes to have the new vehicle ready by the end of spring to allow time to test it before the mid-summer competition, which requires robots to navigate under, over and through obstacles and use acoustic navigation to find audio beacons in the water. Each robot has 15 minutes to finish the course and is judged on its performance.

For these students, the benefits of club membership are obvious. They make friends, build a dazzling robot and add heft to their resumes. But there's another perk.

"We also get to spend a week out in California during the summer," Stephenson said, "so that's lots of fun."

Article by NC State Engineering Magazine

NC State Engineering Magazine - View original article

The 2009 Future of Engineering Award competition involved development of a design for a temporary pedestrian bridge that is suitable for rapid deployment in remote areas. The competing teams were evaluated by College of Engineering faculty based on the innovative nature of the design, the inclusion of other disciplines from within the College of Engineering, use of sustainable/green materials and/or construction techniques, suitability of the design to meet the allowable constraints, and constructability.

The students received the award, which is sponsored by the American Council of Engineering Companies of North Carolina (ACEC/NC), at a ceremony at the bridge site on April 22. "ACEC of North Carolina has always had a close relationship with NC State and the other engineering schools in the state," explains Kenneth Smith, P.E., president of ACEC/NC. "We think that having this innovative bridge design constructed on the Halifax Mall during our legislative events will help highlight the importance of engineering to the state's future and will demonstrate the great work that is being done at NC State in the field of engineering."

ECE Senior Design students Dan Ternes, Jeremy Page, Steven Varela and Joey Cashman added electrical and electronics enhancements to a bridge built by Civil Engineering students. A solar powered electrical system was design and built that powered the entire bridge, including wireless sensor systems designed by Computer Science students.  In addition, the four ECE students designed a binary clock that was hung on the bridge and composed a "layman's guide" for interpreting the display that was etched in wood.  They also designed LED panel lighting that automatically turned on at dusk and produced a very attractive illumination of etched glass panels showing NCSU icons.

According to their instructor, Bart Greene, "This is one of the finest examples of high quality engineering and collaboration with other departments that I have seen."

Student participants also included members of team "medCount" -- Hersh Tapadia, Daniel Jeck and Pavak Shah -- from the Engineering Entrepreneurs Program.

The ceremony occurred as part of Engineering Days, an annual event held by the engineering companies of ACEC/NC to highlight the leadership role that engineering plays in the present and future prosperity of North Carolina. Engineering Days 2009 (April 21-22) was a program presented by the American Council of Engineering Companies of North Carolina (ACEC/NC) to raise awareness among elected and appointed officials and the general public about engineering's importance for our state's future prosperity.

Students built the bridge after winning a competition that required teams to design a temporary pedestrian bridge suitable for quick deployment in remote areas. Teams were evaluated by College faculty based on several factors, including the innovative nature of the design and the use of sustainable materials and construction techniques.

Students built the bridge on April 21 and were on hand the following day to give tours and answer questions about its construction. The students were recognized for their work by Sen. Tony Rand in the N.C. Senate chambers.

Engineering News - View the original article

But those numbers may change, thanks to the pioneering work of three NC State undergraduates, who have developed the first practical diagnostic device for TB that is cheap, fast and accurate.

The device the students created can diagnose tuberculosis with the push of a button. The data can be sent directly to a laptop.

"Here's the simple explanation," says Daniel Jeck, a biomedical engineering student. "You take a patient's saliva and put it on a slide. Then you place the slide in our device. If it glows green, then the patient has an active case of TB. Diagnosing tuberculosis is now as easy as counting glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling."

It seems simple now, but it was a real challenge - and one that had stumped professional medical device developers for years. But Jeck wasn't alone on the project. He teamed up with two other students in the university's rigorous Engineering Entrepreneurs Program: fellow biomedical engineering major Pavak Shah, and Hersh Tapadia, an electrical and computer engineering major.

"Our instructor told us that the most successful teams are multidisciplinary," Shah says. "That's true. We argued a lot, but we couldn't have done it alone."

What they've done has the potential to save thousands of lives and millions of dollars in the developing world, where up to 40 percent of all active TB cases are missed by clinics and hospitals using traditional diagnostic tools.

"In India they require three tests," says Tapadia. "So by the time you get the test results, the disease has progressed and even spread to other people."

Shah, whose parents were born in India, often visits relatives on the sub-continent. He says the medical infrastructure in the developing world isn't equipped to stop the spread of tuberculosis.

"For active TB, the way most of world diagnoses it is to collect sputum, smear it on a slide that's treated with a stain, and then look at the slide at 1,000 times magnification. That requires a trained microscopist, which is very expensive."

Daniel Jeck says diagnosing TB is now "as easy as counting glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling."

It's also slow and tedious. At 1,000 times magnification, a microscopist can scan just a small section of each slide. The NC State students estimate you could scan 45 times more area of each slide in less than one minute using their device.

And they really do mean "you." The device can be used by anyone who can use a computer, not just a trained microscopist.

The groundbreaking device is just the latest technological marvel to emerge from NC State, where university officials launched a campuswide entrepreneurship initiative last year to expand on the success of the engineering program. NC State holds 641 active patents and has another 141 pending. It's spun off 72 start-up companies based on technology developed by university researchers.

Programs like the Engineering Entrepreneurship Program are transforming students' classroom experiences, confronting them with real-world problems and training them to think like the world's most successful entrepreneurs. Shah heard about the program from a neighbor who graduated from NC State in 2007.

"He told me it's an amazing program that would let me take my project to an amazing place," he says.

He wasn't kidding. The project began to take shape last fall after the students met with their project adviser, Dr. Howard Shapiro, a Boston physician who designs instruments that count and sort cells.

After he reviewed the student's initial plans for the TB diagnostic device, Shapiro advised them to take a non-traditional approach.

"He told us that philosophically the way we were approaching the project - the traditional approach - was wrong," Shah says. "He said we were trying to take an expensive box built for Europe and America, take out a few pieces and send to the Third World. He said we needed to start with a new, empty box."

Hersh Tapadia says the purpose of the innovation isn't to make money, but to save lives.

Shapiro suggested that the team build off of an instrument design he had done some initial work on, showing it was possible to detect TB bacteria with very simple hardware.

That was the turning point in the project.

"We decided that we had to create something so that you could push a button and read the test results," Tapadia says. "It had to be that simple."

They built the device using off-the-shelf components and a laptop computer. The device could be mass-produced for under $500 each, they estimate.

Since the innovation hit the front page of Raleigh's News & Observer, the students have been overwhelmed with calls and e-mails, including an offer by Dr. Jason Stout, the North Carolina director of tuberculosis control, to conduct the first round of clinical trials for the device.

It's unclear whether the development will make them rich; the students are still investigating several options, including working with a medical device manufacturer to make the technology available in the developing world.

"International patents are very hard to enforce," Tapadia notes. "But if we put aside the issue of money, then perhaps we could partner with a nonprofit. And, anyway, the point isn't making money. The point is saving lives."

Article by David Hunt, NC State Bulletin

NC State Bulletin - View original article

In a breakthrough for applied physics, North Carolina State University researchers have developed a magnetic semiconductor memory device, using GaMnN thin films, which utilizes both the charge and spin of electrons at room temperature.

The finding represents a major breakthrough, as previous devices that used magnetic semiconductors (GaMnAs) and controlled electron spin were only functional at 100 K (or -173 Celsius). By controlling the spin of electrons, the new device represents a significant advance in semiconductor efficiency and speed.

The new device is also an advance on earlier experimental models because it uses only 5-6 volts to switch the bias of the electrons. Previous cold-temperature devices used much higher voltage. The research was published April 2 in Applied Physics Letters.

The research team included NC State professors S.M. Bedair and Nadia El-Masry; adjunct professor J.M. Zavada; post-doctoral research fellow N. Nepal; and graduate students Oliver Luen and P. Frajtag. The research was supported by the U.S. Army Research Office.

View the original article - Science Daily

Projects are displayed in an exhibit format allowing attendess to browse among the projects, talk to the students and see how the projects work.  Projects cover the wide range of technologies included in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and include collaborations with other NCSU departments and disciplines.

Stop by and browse among the projects at your leisure. Everyone is welcome.

For more information, contact Bart Greene at 515-8740.

The awards were announced at a ceremony held March 13 in Burlington Nuclear Engineering Laboratories. Dr. Louis A. Martin-Vega, dean of the College of Engineering, presented plaques and $250 gift checks to Carty and Hayes. Dr. Peter Fedkiw, head of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, accepted a plaque and gift check on behalf of Winston.

The winners also received eight hours of paid time off and are now nominees for the NC State University Award for Excellence.

Also nominated for the College awards were Brenda Asbury of Research Administration; Saida Fatmi of the Industrial Extension Service; Michael Reep of the Industrial Extension Service; Lara Shields of the Department of Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering; Martin Baucom of the Engineering Foundation; and Tim McGlothin of the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.

Brian Carty, desktop support administrator for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is responsible for day-to-day network support for more than 500 graduate students and 125 faculty and staff. He is not only technologically savvy, but has also proven to be a valuable teacher, constantly helping users with applications, complex instructions, and keeping their computers secure.

Brian has won the Pride of the Wolfpack award twice for his outstanding customer service. He was recognized for his devotion to his customers and ability to support one of the largest departments on campus that spreads throughout five different buildings. The number of clients he has supported and projects he has led has grown steadily.

Brian is known for being exceedingly efficient, prompt, and courteous. He frequently works late nights and weekends and helps the department keep running smoothly.

College of Engineering News - Original Article

It's a remarkable opportunity for the Durham County native, who was one of just 37 American recipients of a highly competitive Gates Cambridge Scholarship this year. The scholarship, which pays the full cost of a master's or doctorate degree at the British university, was established in 2000 by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Candidates are judged on their intellectual ability, leadership capacity and desire to use their knowledge to contribute to society by applying their talents and knowledge to improve the lives of others.

"I'm really excited," Going said last week. "I don't think I've processed the news yet."

The significance wasn't lost on The News & Observer, which named Going its "Tarheel of the Week" on Sunday.  On campus, faculty and staff members were quick to praise Going for his academic achievements as well as his volunteer work with Amnesty International and Habitat for Humanity.

"It's a breakthrough step for him," said Dr. Michael Escuti, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering. "It leads him to an expanded set of professional relationships and deep scientific understanding that he would not be able to access easily otherwise."

Escuti was one of a handful of faculty, staff and alumni who helped Going navigate the scholarship process, which included a written application and a face-to-face interview with a panel of educators.

Greg Mulholland, who graduated from NC State in 2007 with a degree in electrical and computer engineering, attended Cambridge last year. He and Dr. George Barthalmus, NC State's director of undergraduate research, conducted a practice interview session with Going to help him prepare for the Gates Cambridge interview.

"I went to Cambridge on almost the exact same topic that Ryan is going to pursue," Mulholland said. "I could ask questions that only someone who went to Cambridge in the field could ask. Mainly my goal was to make sure he thought about the questions and had the ability to answer them succinctly and appropriately."

Going's intense preparation was coordinated by the university's Office of Fellowship Advising, which maintains an online database of scholarship and fellowship opportunities and helps students successfully compete against students from Ivy League institutions. Jennie LaMonte, who heads up the office, said practice interviews and coaching are important, but they're just the final polishing at the end of a long process.

"It's the long-term prep, not this polishing, that is the most critical element," she said.

Going's road to the Gates Cambridge Scholarship actually began early in life.

"My introduction to science was a little kid's chemistry set," he said. "I never got to blow anything up, but I thought a microscope was the coolest thing in the world. I always liked the more hands-on science."

That made him perfect match for the North Carolina School of Science and Math, where he completed the last two years of high school, and then NC State, where he developed a love of research.

"My primary area of interest is photonics - using electrical devices and materials to manipulate light," he explained. "I want to work on the next generation of solar panels.

"I'm particularly interested in using nanotechnology to create nano-sized structures that enable solar panel to absorb more energy from the sun and operate more efficiently."

For his senior design project, Going developed a prototype of a solar-powered lantern using LED lights. An international organization called "Lighting a Billion Lives" distributes similar lanterns in rural communities in India that aren't connected to a power grid. Going's longer-lasting, more efficient LED lanterns could replace existing lanterns that use florescent lights.

Escuti hired Going as an undergraduate research assistant for two years, giving him the opportunity to work closely with the professor and five Ph.D. students. He gained experience working as part of a research team, attending meetings, offering solutions to research problems, and presenting his findings.

The experience paid off.

"He has the potential and capacity to not only be a thinker but an educator and a mentor," Escuti said. "He is learning to solve real-world problems."

That's exactly what Going hopes to do in the years ahead. After he completes his master's degree at Cambridge, he plans to pursue a Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, and then become a university teacher and researcher.

As he completes his senior year at NC State, Going is thrilled with the doors that have opened to him thanks to the support he's received at the university.

"Dr. Escuti has been absolutely wonderful," he said. "He's a key player in my academic life and research and he's really helped me grow academically mature. He encouraged me to present at a conference, which I never would have thought to do in a million years. And he helped me get used to writing for scientific journals. That's why I was competitive with this scholarship. The level of maturity you gain from doing those things puts you at a different level."

Going has talked with several NC State students who attended Cambridge and he's clearly excited about the prospect of studying and living at a university that's been in the forefront of higher education since the 13th century.

"From what I've heard, Cambridge is going to be like Disneyland for me," he said.

Mulholland was similarly enthralled when he attended Cambridge.

"I was running into Nobel laureates," he said. "I worked in a building where the electron was discovered."

At the same time, Mulholland says NC State students shouldn't view universities like Cambridge and Oxford as beyond their reach.

"People from North Carolina see Cambridge as such a far-off place," he said. "But when I was there I realized that I could work just as hard as any other student. Cambridge is a good place for students from NC State. But NC State is good for Cambridge as well, because NC State produces great students."

NC State University Featured Stories - February 2009 - Original Article ]]> http://www.ece.ncsu.edu/news/13085 Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0500 Town Crier v2 2009-02-23 Five years ago, Chris McCoy dreamed up a four mile race that would become a N.C. State tradition. Called the Krispy Kreme Challenge, participants run two miles from the Bell Tower on N.C. State's campus to the Krispy Kreme store on Peace St., stop and eat a dozen donuts, then run back to the Bell Tower, all in under an hour. McCoy's idea blossomed when ten participants completed the inaugural race on a dare in December 2004 (ironically, McCoy didn't compete because he overslept on race day). Ben Gaddy, then an ECE sophomore, won the first race in 34 minutes and 27 seconds.

The Krispy Kreme Challenge presents runners with a  unique blend of difficulty, seemingly tailor-made for college students. After the first two miles, the Challenge's signature doughnuts make the final leg of the participant's journey a struggle to simply keep their stomachs settled. "The first two doughnuts are delicious, but then your saliva starts to turn into a syrupy glaze," said ECE alumni and original organizer Greg Mulholland in a Sports Illustrated: On Campus article. "When you're running back, it feels like the syrup's coming through your pores."

The striking contrast between eating doughnuts and running has certainly helped set the Krispy Kreme Challenge apart from other contests, but Mulholland thinks the Challenge serves a larger purpose, "N.C. State students, and even people in Raleigh, have been looking for traditions that haven't died over the last fifty years. the Krispy Kreme Challenge could be the next true N.C. State tradition, and that momentum has given it a weight that some random race in a random city wouldn't have."

With these factors in their favor, Mulholland, Gaddy, and several others helped transform the Challenge from a quirky dare amongst friends, to an annual charitable event benefitting the North Carolina Children's Hospital that draws runners and college students from across the nation. The fifth annual Challenge, held February 7, 2009, several years after the Challenge founders graduated, raised over $40,000 from its 5,519 participants and was taped by ESPN for the daily SportsCenter program.

John Pendry is a condensed matter theorist. He has worked at the Blackett Laboratory, Imperial College London, since 1981. He began his career in the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, followed by six years at the Daresbury Laboratory where he headed the theoretical group. He has worked extensively on electronic and structural properties of surfaces developing the theory of low energy diffraction and of electronic surface states.

In 1992 he turned his attention to photonic materials and developed some of the first computer codes capable of handling these novel materials. This interest led to his present research, the subject of his lecture, which concerns the remarkable electromagnetic properties of materials where the normal response to electromagnetic fields is reversed leading to negative values for the refractive index.

In collaboration with scientists at The Marconi Company he designed a series of 'metamaterials' whose properties owed more to their micro-structure than to the constituent materials. These made accessible completely novel materials with properties not found in nature. Successively metamaterials with negative electrical permittivity, then with negative magnetic permeability were designed and constructed. These designs were subsequently the basis for the first material with a negative refractive index, a property predicted 40 years ago by a Russian scientist, but unrealized because of the absence of suitable materials.

He went on to explore the surface excitations of the new negative materials and showed that these were part of the surface plasmon excitations familiar in metals. This project culminated in the proposal for a 'perfect lens' whose resolution is unlimited by wavelength. These concepts have stimulated further theoretical investigations and many experiments which have confirmed the predicted properties.

More recently, in collaboration with a team of scientists at Duke University, he has proposed a recipe for a cloak that can hide an arbitrary object from electromagnetic fields. A version of this design working at radar frequencies and exploiting the properties of metamaterials has now been implemented experimentally by the Duke team.

The seminar will take place on Friday, February 13, at 1:00 PM, in 1230 EBII.  The seminar is open to the public and directions to Engineering Building II can be found on the ECE Directions page.