Issue 2
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BIANNUAL NEWS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
2014
INFORMs INSIDE Faculty Spotlight - Dr. Arash Takshi p. 2 Student Honors p. 5 Mini-Circuits Sponsors Design for X Lab p. 6
Senior Design Winners Announced The Fall 2013 Senior Design presentation was held December 6, 2013 at the University of South Florida. The winning project, “Smart Greenhouse,” was developed by graduating seniors Rafael Perez Cruz and Jorge Sayegh Labbad. The Smart Greenhouse consists on humidity and temperature control inside a greenhouse to avoid crop damage and unwanted production of fungus. More information on the project can be found at http://greenhuseusf.wix. com/smart-greenhouse
Message from the Chair
O
ne of the most important aspects of an engineering education is something that will never show up in GPA or GRE scores. But
many engineering managers will tell you that concerns about it are the most likely reasons for sleepless nights. And, it is the foundation upon which all good engineers can build their careers --- I am referring to professional integrity. Integrity is often described in terms of behavior --it is expected that engineers will accept full responsibility for their own work, maintain independence in their professional judgment, and be fair, and avoid deception in all statements, documents, methods, and tools. One reason I chose to write about this topic is because it occurred to me that, on an individual level a transgression will have far greater effect today than ever before. Within one’s profession there have probably never been six degrees of separation, and with today’s tools such as LinkedIn and other networking tools, there is much less separation. And, as they say, bad news travels fast. But the main reason for choosing this topic is because I think professional integrity makes engineers (and scientists) special, and it is hard earned, expected, and very much valued. Professional integrity is a sound basis for enhancing your working relationships and will generally lead to good communication and cooperation in the workplace When I have the opportunity to talk about the engineering profession to those outside of it, I often go to this point first because I’m proud to be part of our community. Our department also places great value on professional integrity, and last year we established our own Academic Integrity Policy. The new policy is signed by all of our undergraduate and graduate students, is a standard component of our course syllabi, and violations of the policy are severe. It contains the following “The faculty of the Electrical Engineering Department is committed to maintaining a learning environment which promotes academic integrity and the professional obligations recognized in the IEEE Code of Ethics (http://ee.eng.usf.edu/about/ codeOfEthics.htm ). Accordingly, the department adheres to a common Academic Integrity Policy in all of its courses. This policy is to be applied uniformly in a fair and unbiased manner.” We want engineering managers that hire our graduates to sleep peacefully at night. And when our graduates become managers, we want them not to worry about whether all the engineers on their staff have the same high level of professional integrity as they do.
Intevac Donates Laser System for Solar Cell Manufacturing This past summer Intevac generously donated a laser system to Professor Ferekides’ research group who are developing a novel process for the manufacture of solar cells. The system valued at ~$25,000 will be utilized for the development of an advanced high throughput solar cell manufacturing process. The project is funded by the Bay Area Photovoltaics Consortium (BAPVC) - a Department of Energy sponsored program. Intevac, Inc. , founded in 1991, is headquartered in Santa Clara, California and has two businesses: Equipment and Photonics. They are a leader in the design, development and manufacturing of highproductivity process equipment solutions for both the hard drive and solar cell markets. In Photonics, Intevac is a leader in the development and manufacturing of leading-edge, high-sensitivity imaging products and vision systems for the defense markets.
Faculty Spotlight - Dr. Arash Takshi Dr. Arash Takshi, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering, was awarded the Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award at the Provost’s 2013 Faculty Honors and Awards Reception held on November 26, 2013. The Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award recognizes excellence, innovation and effectiveness in teaching in our undergraduate programs. Dr. Takshi’s primary research interest is in the field of renewable energy.
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Specifically he is interested in research on bio/organic solar cells and is a faculty affiliate in the Clean Energy Research Center at USF. In his opinion, “Employing new materials can push the limits in solar cells, beyond to what silicon technology can offer. Furthermore, using emerging materials, new devices with special features can be developed to address some of the existing challenges in the application of renewable energy.”
From Left to right: Jen-Pin Lin, Vahid Disfani, Lakshan Piyasinghe, Dr. Zhixin Miao, George Gurlaskie from Duke Energy, Javad Khazaei, Yin Li, and Ling Xu.
USF Smart Grid Power Systems News Update (power.eng.usf.edu)
1. The Duke Energy Teaching Lab is starting to function. The teaching lab is located in ENB 235. Currently it has four benches equipped with digital signal processing based control equipment & motors. Undergraduate students can now conduct experiments on machines in the lab. 2. The Fall 2013 semester sees a surge in both Ph.D. students and master students. The enrollment number for Power System Analysis exceeds 30 in Fall 2013. In addition, five other courses are offered in power and energy area. They are: a. b. c. d.
AC machines and electric drives Distribution power systems Power system protection Electromechanical energy conversion
3. The USF Smart Grid Power Systems lab is continuing conducting top notch research and teaching. Our graduates are highly sought by the industry. Most recently, one of our Ph.D. students, Ling Xu, started to work at Alstom Grid R&D in Philadelphia. And he is working on the High-voltage dc systems around the world! 4. The USF EE Department is finalizing two Energy Certificates: one in Smart Grid Power System and one in Renewable Energy. The two Energy Certificates are expected to be effective starting from January 2014. Both degree seeking and non-degree seeking students can get the certificates. A minimum of 12 credit hours from a set of designated courses is required for the certificates.
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Dr. Gokhan Mumcu Receives CAREER Award TAMPA, Fla (November 25, 2013) Electrical Engineering Assistant Professor Gokhan Mumcu received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation for his proposal: “Microfluidically Loaded Highly Reconfigurable Compact RF Devices.” The four-year award totals $400,000. Next generation satellite, ground-to-air, air-to-air communications and radar technologies will demand easy-to-use low-cost highly reconfigurable and self-adapting RF front-ends. The power handling capability of reconfigurable compact filters have historically been an important challenge, and the proposed effort holds promise to alleviate these concerns.
Dr. Richard D. Gitlin Awarded Distinguished University Professor Status Dr. Richard Gitlin, of the Electrical Engineering department has been awarded the status of Distinguished University Professor. Dr. Gitlin joined USF in 2008 after a distinguished career in the private sector, particularly over 30 years spent at Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies. He is currently a State of Florida 21st Century Scholar as well as Agere Systems Chair and Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering. At Bell Labs, he was a pioneer in the research and development of digital communications, broadband networking, and wireless systems. Among his 47 patents are key ones in these areas including the DSL (digital subscriber line) concept which allowed internet access over telephone networks. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Bell Labs Fellow, and the only USF member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has won awards for his research including being co-recipient of the 2005 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award. At USF, his research has focused on the integration of advanced communications technologies and bio-medical systems for the wireless networking of miniature wirelessly controlled devices to accomplish Minimally Invasive Surgery. The research, in collaboration with other members of the College of Engineering and several USF/TGH/Florida Hospital surgeons, is funded by two current NSF grants and there are five pending NSF proposals. As one of his reviewers summarized, Dr. Gitlin is an “exceptional and acclaimed researcher who has won numerous awards, including election to the National Academy of Engineering, for his significant research contributions which have been sustained and prolific over several decades.” Dr. Gitlin was honored at USF’s 2013 Faculty Honors and Awards Reception held on November 26, 2013. 4
Student Honors The USF College of Engineering Heart of Gold Scholarship Awards Luncheon was held October 4, 2013. The department of Electrical Engineering is proud to announce a number of graduate and undergraduate students from the department were honored. Michael Brandow Myra & Mack D. Cooley Scholarship Leandro Carvajal Honewell Hispanic Scholarship Sufyan Dawoodjee Franz Mantini Endowed Scholarship Tahsin Ekram Tom A. Tiedemann Scholarship Jason Entenmann Mozelle Beverly Scholarhsip John Llera Expressway Award Scholarship Valerie McManus Michelle Homans Austin Engineering Scholarship
Doctoral Student Abhishek Dey Finalist at IEEE Electrical engineering doctoral student Abhishek Dey was a finalist (top 15) among 141 student papers submitted for competition in IEEE International Antennas and Propagation Society Symposium held July 9, 2013 in Orlando. His paper is titled “Wideband Frequency Tunable Liquid Metal Monopole Antenna.” This is the most prestigious annual student paper competition held in the research fields of electromagnetics and antennas. He was awarded a $1250 travel grant by the symposium committee as the student paper competition finalist. Abhishek’s advisor is electrical engineering Assistant Professor Gokhan Mumcu. Mechanical engineering Assistant Professor Rasim Guldiken is coauthor of the awarded work.
Research Day 2013 Poster Winners Abhishek Dey, Maysam Nezafati, Timothy Palomo, and Saumya Sharma, all Electrical Engineering Doctoral students, were winners at the 2013 Research Day Poster Competition. The event was open to all undergraduate and graduate students working with engineering faculty and College research centers for poster presentations. The top student exhibitors received travel awards to present at professional meetings.
William Mitchell College of Engineering Memorial Scholarship Justin Parker Stefan G. Czerkas Memorial Scholarship John Stratton Allan R. Gondeck Endowed Scholarship Houman Yaghoubi Allan R. Gondeck Endowed Scholarship
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Mini-Circuits Sponsors Design for X Laboratory in USF College of Engineering In 2013 Mini-Circuits, Inc. made a very generous donation to the USF College of Engineering to sponsor the new Design for X Laboratory on the first floor of the Burdick Engineering Building. Mini-Circuits is a global leader in the RF/microwave industry and has been a long-time supporter of the Center for Wireless and Microwave Information Systems and the Electrical Engineering Department. The company was the original sponsor of the Senior Capstone Design Poster Competition and has provided annual donations of microwave components to the WAMI instructional laboratory dating back to 1997. In addition, over 20 EE graduate students have received support from the Mini-Circuits Scholarship fund that Professor Dunleavy arranged with the company’s president, Harvey Kaylie, in the late 1990’s. The latest donation for the Design for X Laboratory is intended to support and encourage multidisciplinary design work involving undergraduate students from across the College of Engineering. The senior capstone projects are one of the most important aspects of the undergraduate program and we are indebted to Mini-Circuits for enabling the establishment of an outstanding facility for students to carry out their design activities. The new lab also provides a much-needed space to carry out hands-on experiments associated with courses that traditionally are lecture-only.
Duke Energy Donates to the Power and Energy Teaching Lab Duke Energy made $110,000 cash donation to support USF EE Department’s Power and Energy Teaching lab. The donation is used to develop the Phase 1 Power and Energy Teaching lab setup. Four lab benches featuring OPAL-RT control toolkit, motors and power electronics boards have been purchased and setup. Demos on machine control currently are available to undergraduate students taking EGN 3375 Electromechanical Energy Systems. The teaching lab greatly enhances students’ learning and hands-on experience. We are very thankful for Duke Energy’s support!
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Agilent Technologies Continues its Support of the EE Curriculum Agilent Technologies renewed its support of the EE Department and the College of Engineering through the donation of 100 seats of the Advanced Design System (ADS) electronic design automation software. ADS is the industry-leading software for RF/microwave design and is an integral part of several courses in the EE curriculum. Every EE student learns ADS in the Wireless Circuits and Systems Design Laboratory, and many become very skilled ADS users through senior-level and graduate electives in the RF/microwave area. The donation from Agilent is substantial – each seat is valued at ~$250K – and helps make the undergraduate and graduate experience in the USF EE program exceptional. Because of its strong academic ties with Agilent, USF was also selected as a founding partner in its new certification program. In this program, high performing students in the Wireless Circuits and Systems Design Lab that also pass a hands-on test will become certified in the use the ADS software as well as several types of RF/ microwave instrumentation and measurement. Students receiving this recognition will be listed on the Agilent Technologies website.
Jabil Circuits Supports the EE Senior Capstone Design Program Jabil Circuits, an international contract manufacturing and engineering firm headquartered in St. Petersburg, FL made a generous $15,000 donation in support of the EE Department’s senior capstone design program. The donation will be used to offset the costs of material and fabrication for the student design teams. In addition to the financial support, Jabil engineers are actively engaged in classroom activities as guest speakers, in student professional societies and in the department’s industry advisory board. The company is also sponsoring research projects in the EE Department in the areas of biomedical engineering and additive manufacturing. We are very thankful for Jabil’s broad support of our program and the value it brings to all of our students.
Where are they now? Class of 2012:
Class of 2013:
Adham Alqassis – Stryker (Lakeland, FL)
Dr. David Cure – Kymeta (Seattle, WA)
Dr. Tony Price – Intel (Phoenix, AZ)
Gregory Rasponi – IBM
Dr. Dorielle Price – Intel (Phoenix, AZ)
Jimmy Valdiviezo – Goff Communication Dr. Ling Xu – ALSTOM Grid Inc. Dr. Bojana Zivanovic – Waveconnex (Portland, OR)
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EE News Vol. 02, Issue 02 Spring 2014
Produced by Electrical Engineering Dr. Thomas Weller, Chair Jessica Procko, Editor University of South Florida 4202 East Fowler Ave, ENB 118 Tampa, FL 33620 V: 813-974-2369 F: 813-974-5250 Editorial Contact: jprocko@usf.edu