Rutgers IEEE SCAR team won the Tournament Champions award at VCAT VEXU Tournament 2024
On February 3, 2024, Rutgers' IEEE VEXU division recently went to Vaughn College in New York City to compete against 6 other teams. The Rutgers SCAR team placed first and won home the Tournament Champions award! Congratulations to all the members that competed and thank you to Vaughn college for hosting the event.
ECE alumni Pete Pupalaikis has been elected to NAE
ECE faculty Umer Hassan received ONR grant on CNS-Oxygen Toxicity Drug Discovery (OTDD) Therapeutic Platform for Divers
Oxygen toxicity is a common condition experienced by divers during dive and post hyperbaric therapy for divers suffering with decompression sickness. Many divers use nitrox with up to 40% oxygen for diving, and some use higher levels of oxygen or even pure oxygen for decompression. Higher partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) produces more oxygen radicals (also known as reactive oxygen species, ROS) which are mainly responsible for central nervous system (CNS) and lung toxicity. Although, our cells have innate ability to repair the damage caused by the O2 radicals. However, in diving conditions, as the pO2 and number of O2 radicals are increased, a time reaches, when cells cannot repair the damage as quickly as it occurs. This results in impairment of cellular functions with subsequent cell death. CNS oxygen toxicity (CNS-OT) i.e., toxic effects of oxygen on the brain occur before the toxic effects on the lungs, which further compromises divers’ agility during undersea operations. Oxygen toxicity can result in a range of symptoms, including convulsions, seizures, and respiratory failure, which can be life-threatening. There is a dire need to develop a CNS-Oxygen Toxicity Drug Discovery (OTDD) platform to enable rapid investigation of different therapeutic targets for preventing and/ or treating oxygen toxicity. This proposal will address these challenges and will, (i) develop a platform to enable in-vitro CNS-OT cell model in response to potential therapeutic targets, (ii) investigate and collect data for different neuronal cell lines and individual or combination CNS-OT drugs’ efficacy, and (iii) develop machine learning models to strategize the best dose regiment for oxygen toxicity recovery.
Kristin Dana will be speaker at "AI Through a Rutgers Lens"
Socially Cognizant Robotics: Preparing for a future in which humans and robots regularly interact and society develops new rules
Wednesday, February 7, 2024 – Part Two
8:30 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.
Microsoft, 885 2nd Avenue, 34th Floor, New York, NY
“Implications for robot design”
Kristin Dana
Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Rutgers School of Engineering
“Implications for planning and public policy”
Clint Andrews
Associate Dean for Research
Director, Rutgers Center for Green Building
Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
Continental breakfast will be available. Business Casual dress requested.
Enjoy informative discussions and networking opportunities in each installment.
Register today to join the Rutgers community for this exciting series! Advance registration required. Kindly respond by Friday, February 2, 2024.
Graciously hosted by Microsoft. Special thanks to Simon Liepold EJB’05.
Faith Johnson selected as speaker to the Future Leaders in Robotics and AI: Celebrating Diversity and Innovation Seminar Series
ECE Colloquium - Prof. Elaine Short, Tufts University
Note new location: Biomedical Building lecture hall BME-102
ECE faculty Jorge Ortiz received a NIH grant on Developing the Context-Aware Multimodal Ecological Research and Assessment (CAMERA) Platform for Continuous Measurement and Prediction of Anxiety and Memory State
ECE Assistant Professor Jorge Ortiz has been awarded a significant grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for the project entitled "Developing the Context-Aware Multimodal Ecological Research and Assessment (CAMERA) Platform for Continuous Measurement and Prediction of Anxiety and Memory State" (Project Number: 1R61MH135405-01). The grant aims to fund the development of the CAMERA platform, an advanced multimodal hardware/software system designed for the nuanced measurement and predictive analysis of anxiety and cognitive performance.
The project, which is set to span a duration of up to five years with an overall budget of $5 million, will see Dr. Ortiz's team receiving $1 million in funding. The CAMERA platform represents a significant advancement in interdisciplinary research methodologies, combining neural, physiological, behavioral, and environmental data with ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) to facilitate a continuous and high-resolution exploration of the interplay between human brain functions and behavior. Utilizing multimodal data and applying interpretable machine learning techniques, the initiative aims to achieve groundbreaking predictive capabilities regarding human behavioral states, initially focusing on anxiety and memory performance.
This initiative is a testament to the innovative and collaborative nature of research undertaken within Rutgers' ECE Department, demonstrating a strong commitment to the advancement of human-centered artificial intelligence and its practical applications. The project's broader implications for understanding complex human internal states and behaviors promise to establish new benchmarks in behavioral and cognitive research.
For additional details regarding on this project, please access the NIH grant system via the following link: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10801782
Congratulations to Jorge!
Professor Narindra Puri Memorial Endowed Scholarship
Dr. Narendra Nath Puri was a professor of Electrical Engineering at Rutgers for 38 years. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He was intentional about moving Rutgers Engineering forward and countless students, faculty, staff, and alumni have benefited from his efforts. Dr. Puri passed away on Dec. 4, 2015, at the age of 82. Dr. Puri’s wife, Dr. Kamal Puri, has generously donated this scholarship in honor of her husband and his work.
2023-2024
For the 2023-2024 academic year, the Narendra Puri Scholar has been awarded to three students Andrew Xie and Jiankun Jiang.
My name is Andrew Xie and I'm a first-year M.S. student in the ECE department. I graduated from Rutgers undergrad in 2023 with a B.S. in Computer Engineering and a B.S. in Computer Science, and am excited to be pursuing an M.S. in Computer Engineering with a specialization in Software Engineering. I'm interested in cloud computing and big data processing and I'd like to gain familiarity with widely-used distributed technologies like Hadoop, Spark, and Elasticsearch. I hope to expand my understanding both in theory and in practice to leverage toward high impact projects in the future.
My name is Jiankun Jiang. As second year master student majoring in computer engineering at Rutgers, I have always been deeply passionate about high performance compute and machine learning. The Puri Scholarship, to me, represents more than just financial support; it's a recognization of the research efforts I've dedicated myself to over the past year. Such recognition would not only be a source of great pride but also a powerful motivator, spurring me to continue forging ahead in my research and learning endeavors, continually striving for excellence and innovation.
2022-2023
For the 2022-2023 academic year, the Narendra Puri Scholar has been awarded to three students Mahtab Kokabi, Muhammad Ahsan Sami, and Demetrios Lambropolous.
Mahtab Kokabi received her MSc degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in August 2021. She is currently a PhD student working with Dr. Mehdi Javanmard in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. Her research focuses on the Nanofabrication, microfluidic devices, and biosensors.
Demetrios Lambropolous is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering at the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, after receiving his BS and MS from the same institution. Under the supervision of Professor Narayan B. Mandayam at the Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB), he is actively engaged in multiple research projects on wireless communication. His research interests include machine learning techniques for optimization and decision-making, resource allocation in wireless networks, human-computer interaction design, and security in emerging technologies.
2021-2022
For the 2021-2022 academic year, the Narendra Puri Scholar has been awarded to two students, Kimberly Chang and Kebin Li.
Kimberly Chang is a second year M.S. degree student. In May 2020, she graduated from Rutgers with a B.S. in Computer Engineering, a B.S. in Computer Science with a minor in Japanese, and a Recording Arts Certificate. Her interests include machine learning, data science, and parallel programming.
Kebin Li is a master student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University, pursuing his ECE Combined BS/Master’s Degrees. He currently working on the real-time communication topic with Prof. Yingying Chen as advisor. His interests lie in web and mobile software development, especially on deep learning application.
2020-2021
Jeffrey Isaacs
Jeffrey Isaacs is an MS student working independently on global localization for indoor autonomous mobile robots. He received his undergraduate degree in computer engineering at Rutgers in 2019. His research focuses on 2D map processing, sensor fusion, and covariance tracking across multiple sensor modalities.
Zhaoyi Xu
Zhaoyi Xu received his B.E at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in May 2018. He currently is a PhD student working with Dr. Athina Petropulu in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. His research focuses on the dual-function radar communication system and MIMO radar.
Shounak Rangwala
I am a second year Masters student specializing in Computer Engineering. My interests lie in software development incorporating principles of parallel computing and deep learning. I am grateful to all my professors, especially Prof. Shantenu Jha and Prof. Ivan Seskar, for giving me the opportunity of working on projects in these fields. I am currently working as a researcher, in WINLAB, on my project regarding the design of self-driving cars using ROS. My spare time is divided between watching football (GO CHIEFS!!) and working on pet web-application projects. My goal is to put my skills to use by joining the industry after I graduate.
2019-2020
Intessar Al-Iedani received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Department of Computer Engineering, University of Basra, Iraq, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. She worked as an assistant instructor at the Department of Computer Engineering, University of Basra, Iraq, from 2007 to 2012. After receiving a Graduate fellowship from the Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq (HCED) in 2012, she started pursuing her PhD study at Rutgers University. Intessar received a Graduate Fellowship from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University for the academic years of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. She is currently a candidate Ph.D. student studying under the guidance of Prof. Zoran Gajic. Intessar’s research focuses on the order reduction of large-scale wind energy systems with double fed induction generators (DFIG) using the balancing and singular perturbation methods.
Lingyi Xu is an MS student working with Dr. Zoran Gajic as her advisor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. Her research is focused on control systems, computer vision and robotics. Lingyi recently received her MS at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in May 2017. Her thesis was titled, “Monocular Visual Measurement for Mobile Robot.”
2018-2019
Intessar Al-Iedani received her B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Department of Computer Engineering, University of Basra, Iraq, in 2003 and 2006, respectively. She worked as an assistant instructor at the Department of Computer Engineering, University of Basra, Iraq, from 2007 to 2012. After receiving a Graduate fellowship from the Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq (HCED) in 2012, she started pursuing her PhD study at Rutgers University. Intessar received a Graduate Fellowship from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University for the academic years of 2017-2018 and 2018-2019. She is currently a candidate Ph.D. student studying under the guidance of Prof. Zoran Gajic. Intessar’s research focuses on the order reduction of large-scale wind energy systems with double fed induction generators (DFIG) using the balancing and singular perturbation methods.
Lingyi Xu is a PhD student working with Dr. Zoran Gajic as her advisor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. Her research is focused on control systems, computer vision and robotics. Lingyi recently received her MS at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in May 2017. Her thesis was titled, “Monocular Visual Measurement for Mobile Robot.”
2017-2018
Lingyi Xu is an MS student working with Dr. Zoran Gajic as her advisor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. Her research is focused on control systems, computer vision and robotics. Lingyi recently received her MS at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in May 2017. Her thesis was titled, “Monocular Visual Measurement for Mobile Robot.”
Jiarong Chen is an MS student in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. Prior to joining Rutgers, Jiarong earned his undergraduate degree in Automation Engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2012 via the 3+2 cooperative program with Rutgers. His research interests are in Control and Automation, especially in high-speed scan using Atomic Force Microscope. Jiarong Chen is advised by Dr. Qingze Zou in the MAE department of Rutgers.
ECE faculty Zhao Zhang received a NSF Medium grant on Characterizing and Harnessing Performance Variability in Accelerator-rich Clusters
Large computing clusters, including data centers and supercomputers, are used for a variety of applications including scientific computations and machine learning. Modern compute clusters typically use specialized accelerator hardware to speed up computations. Operators of accelerator-rich clusters aim to have high resource utilization across all users of the cluster. However, these systems are often under-utilized due to performance variability across accelerators; that is, application performance varies across accelerators even when the same application is run on the same type of accelerator. This proposal will develop Fortuna, a set of tools that can be used by cluster operators and researchers to characterize and harness variability across accelerators. First, Fortuna will use new methodologies to characterize how much performance variability exists across a wide range of accelerator hardware. Second, Fortuna will identify which applications are more likely to suffer from performance variability. Finally, Fortuna will include new scheduling mechanisms that can use variability measurements and knowledge about applications to improve utilization.