“National Science Foundation awards Cornell ECE professor Alyosha Molnar the prestigious CAREER award”

The intellectual merit of this research is in understanding the capabilities and limitations of imaging systems using diffractive angle-sensitive pixels to analyze the light field. This includes:

1. Developing models of how scene statistics are reflected in the output statistics of angle sensitive pixel arrays, and so developing algorithms to extract useful information about the scene, such as depth, 3-D directional motion, and object recognition.
2. Understanding how to optimize arrays of angle sensitive pixels to encode scenes at various focal depths, as well as how to best deploy signal selection, conditioning and processing circuits to take advantage of these arrays? Signal properties when encoding real scenes.
3. Investigating new integrated diffractive structures that enhance ASP quantum efficiency and spatial resolution, and that filter the light field in new ways.

The broader impacts of this research will include enhanced imaging systems with applications in security, automation, health care, and scientific research, from wildlife tracking to microscopy. This work will also impact the commercial sphere by providing new capabilities in consumer electronics, helping to boost economic growth. These impacts are increased because these systems use standard CMOS manufacturing, and so can be mass-produced at very low size and cost. This research provides an easily understood example of low-level physics driving useful high-level function, providing compelling examples for recruiting and inspiring future engineers.

Alyosha Molnar received his BS from Swarthmore College in 1997, and after spending a season as a deck-hand on a commercial Tuna fishing boat, worked for Conexant Systems for 3 years as an RFIC design engineer. He was co-responsible engineer developing their first-generation direct-conversion receiver for the GSM cellular standard. That chip, and subsequent variants, have sold in excess of 100 million parts. When he entered graduate school at U.C. Berkeley in 2001, Molnar worked on an early, ultra-low-power radio transceiver for wireless sensor networks (receiving his master's degree), and then joined a retinal neurophysiology group where he worked on dissecting the structure and function of neural circuits in the mammalian retina. After receiving his PhD from Berkeley in 2007 he joined the faculty at Cornell University the same year, and presently works on low-power software-defined radios, neural interface circuits, and new integrated imaging techniques.

“Christopher Batten wins the prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award.”

Systems across the computing spectrum, from cell phones to supercomputers, are increasingly using a heterogeneous mix of general-purpose multicores augmented with programmable graphics processing units (GPUs). Heterogeneity offers a balance between programmability and efficiency, but can also significantly increase complexity at all levels of the computing stack. This project is exploring a new approach based on explicitly encoding and executing a loop iteration space with the goal of elegantly unifying these two types of processors into a single homogeneous computational substrate.

Professor Christopher Batten has been an assistant professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Cornell University since January 2010. His research focuses on energy-efficient parallel computer architecture for both high-performance and embedded applications. Christopher received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2010. From 2007 to 2009, he was a visiting scholar in the new Parallel Computing Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. Professor Batten received his M.Phil. in engineering as a Churchill Scholar at the University of Cambridge in 2000, and received his B.S. in electrical engineering as a Jefferson Scholar at the University of Virginia in 1999.

Related Links:
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=1149464

“US Air Force Young Investigator Research Award”

Cornell ECE assistant professor A. Kevin Tang is one of 48 scientists and engineers across the United States to receive a prestigious Young Investigator Research Award from the US Air Force’s Office of Scientific Research.

According to a Jan 11, 2012 press release from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research:

Source - http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/afoo-aag011112.php

Assistant professor Tang’s research interests include: Communication Networks, Interconnected Dynamical Systems, Stochastic Networks and Processes, and Optimization Theory, Control Theory and Applications

“Cornell’s iGem Team led by ECE’s Xiling Shen wins a top prize at 2011 iGEM WORLD Championship Jamboree hosted by MIT”

The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition is a worldwide Synthetic Biology competition aimed at undergraduate university students. Students form teams in the spring to design new genetic devices that work in living cells. After winning the United States Regional qualifier, the Cornell iGEM team went on to win a gold medal and the top prize in the best manufacturing category at the IGEM 2011 Word Championship (Jamboree). Faculty advisors Xiling Shen and Matthew Delisa led Cornell's team, which has been competing for the last three years.

Dr. Shen points out a few unique aspects of the Cornell team, including:

• As a young team, Cornell did exceptionally well against more established teams from other top institutes.
• "They came up with the idea entirely on their own, attesting to their ingenuity"
• The team was able to implement and test a fully-functional system "rather than staying on the conceptual level".
• The Cornell team was one of the most interdisciplinary teams in the competition - comprised of "students from pretty much all engineering departments as well as biology departments".

Shen summarizes, "We want to raise the awareness for the iGem team because this is the most interdisciplinary undergrad team on campus." Shen points out that this team brings together the College of Engineering, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. While the team is supported by all three colleges the engineering college has taken the lead. "[The mission of the iGem team] represents the new initiative from college of engineering to grow in the bio and energy areas. This is a showcase that undergraduate students can break the traditional departmental boundary and work on a self-defined projects for innovation."

2011 iGEM Team Abstract:
Cornell's 2011 iGEM team has designed a new method to produce complex biomolecules. BioFactory utilizes a modular microfluidic chip and bacteria that are programmed to release functional enzymes when excited by light. When combined in series, these chips operate as an automated bio-manufacturing assembly line. This innovative method will help produce complex molecules and lower manufacturing costs for pharmaceuticals and biofuels in the future. [source: http://2011.igem.org/Team:Cornell]

Related Artcile: Student team perfects 'cell-free' way to produce complex biomolecules Team

“Fellow to the Optical Society of America”

“Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)”

“Cornell ECE Professor Pierre-Alexandre Gourdain receives $420K NSF award to investigate the effect of magnetic field on high energy density plasma dynamics, with potential applications to fusion energy and astrophysics”

“Cornell ECE professor Lang Tong receives grant from National Science Foundation to study the US Smart Grid”

“NSF Awards $700k to Professors Manohar, Albonesi and Guimbretiere”

“Michael Tien Excellence in Teaching Award ”

“NSF Awards $330K to Professor Amit Lal”

“Cornell Site Director of the Power Systems Engineering Research Center”

“Ruth and Joel Spira Excellence in Teaching Award”

“Martínez, 2011 Tau Beta Pi Professor of the Year in the College of Engineering”

“Cornell Engineering Alumni Association’s (CEAA) Academic Achievement award”

“IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal ”

“Professor Lester Eastman, ECE, is now Given Foundation Professor of Engineering Emeritus”

“IEEE Fellows”

“Young Investigator Award by Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)”

“Blavatnik Awards for Young Scietists”

“US Air Force: Young Investigator Program Award”

“2010 MacArthur Fellow”

“United States Air Force Scientific Advisory Board Selection”

“Michael Tien Excellence in Teaching Award”

“DARPA Young Faculty Award (YFA)”

“Sheila Hemami named Associate Director of the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering”

“IEEE Teaching Award”

“Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teaching Award”

“Phase II of SBIR and Congressional Plus Up”

“National Science Foundation Career Award: Optically Inspired Electronics ”

“National Science Foundation Early Career Award”

“Hannes Alfven Medal of the European Geosciences Union”

“Rajit Manohar appointed as Interim Associate Dean”

“Marsha D. McCormick Award for Excellence in Advising”

“Engineering College Teaching Award”

“Jefferson Science Fellow with the US Department of State”

“AFOSR MURI Award”

“2009 Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award.”

“Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teaching Award in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2009”

“Provost Award for Distinguished Scholarship”

“2009 IEEE Signal Processing Society Distinguished Lecturer”

“IEEE Fellow”

“Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award”

“James and Mary Tien Excellence in Teaching Award”

“International Ionospheric Effects Symposium First Prize”

“Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teaching Award in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2008”

“DARPA 2008 Young Faculty Awards”

“2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Electrical Engineering”

“National Science Foundation Faculty Early CAREER Award”

“Fellow of Optical Society of America”

“Kendall S. Carpenter Memorial Advising Award”

“Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers”

“Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teaching Award in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in 2007”

“John Swanson College Teaching Award for 2007”

“ECE Professor Goes to Washington...”

“Professor Johnson is the Featured Guest on NPR's Science Friday Show – May 18, 2007”

“National Science Foundation Early Career Award”

“NSF Early Career”

“Global Indus Technovators Award”

“Prof. Lang Tong named to Irwin and Joan Jacobs Chair in Engineering”

“IEEE Micro Top Picks”

“Hemami promoted to Full Professor”

“Bruce Land Receives Ruth and Joel Spira Outstanding Teaching Award in 2006”

“IBM Faculty Award”

“IBM Faculty Award”

“IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award”

“National Science Foundation Early Career Award”

“2006 IEEE Leon K. Kirchmayer Graduate Teaching Award”