Cornell 2020

Class of 2020 spotlights shared on Medium

A diverse collection of undergraduates and graduate and professional students, as Cornellians they’ve explored courses far beyond their academic disciplines; pursued firsthand research in labs and in the field; given their time, energy and ideas to serve the public good; and enlivened and entertained campus with their artistic and athletic endeavors. Read more

Image by Cornell NanoScale Facility (CNF), a member of NNCI supported by NSF Grant NNCI-1542081

Building the New Computer

Computer engineering researchers are starting to grapple with the implications of what has come to be seen as the end of, or the breaking of, Moore’s law. The observation that transistor density on an integrated circuit doubled about every two years is named after Gordon Moore, whose 1965 paper originally described and predicted this performance growth rate. Moore's law allowed the semiconductor industry to transform the world by building ever-smaller transistors with increasing density, creating the ubiquitous and relatively inexpensive computing environment we live in today. Even though... Read more

New paper outlines an optimum design for Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes

Wenshen Li, Ph.D. student in electrical and computer engineering, is the lead author of the paper published in Applied Physics Letters, titled “ Near-ideal reverse leakage current and practical maximum electric field in β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes.” Devansh Saraswat, Yaoyao Long, Kazuki Nomoto along with Professors Debdeep Jena and Huili Grace Xing are co-authors. “For the first time, we observed an ideal reverse leakage characteristic in Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes,” said Li. “With such information, we can accurately determine how large an electric field can be supported in Ga2O3... Read more

Two graduating seniors recognized for academics and service

From among the accomplished members of the Cornell ECE Class of 2020, two seniors, Katie Bradford and Kevin Ying, have been selected to receive prestigious year-end awards. The William S. Einwechter Award Katie Bradford ’20 will receive the William S. Einwechter Award, presented annually to a member of the ECE Senior Class who has demonstrated distinguished records of service to ECE and its students, to the College and to the University. Bradford’s work in ECE focused on hardware, ranging from UAVs with the CUAir autonomous aerial system project team, to robotics projects in the Maker Lab... Read more

Yongjin Cho’s paper is Editor’s Pick in Applied Physics Letters

Yongjin Cho, research associate in electrical and computer engineering, is the lead author of a new paper published by the journal Applied Physics Letters. The paper titled “Molecular beam homoepitaxy on bulk AlN enabled by aluminum-assisted surface cleaning” was selected as an Editor’s Pick. ECE Professors Huili Grace Xing and Debdeep Jena are among the paper’s co-authors. The research examines the effectiveness using aluminum to assist in the cleaning of native surface oxides of bulk AlN. “Native surface oxide of AlN substrate has been a major obstacle to the success of high quality sample... Read more

Christina Delimitrou receives Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship

Delimitrou is an assistant professor and the John and Norma Balen Sesquicentennial Faculty Fellow in electrical and computer engineering. She leads the Systems, Architecture, and Infrastructure Lab (SAIL) and her research interests include cloud computing, computer architecture and applied machine learning. The Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship recognizes promising new faculty, whose exceptional talent for research and innovation identifies them as emerging leaders in their fields. This year, 185 individuals were nominated and five were selected. Delimitrou’s recent work focuses on... Read more

Cloud Computing for Agility, Complexity, and Speed

By: J. Edward Anthony

Cloud computing has become synonymous with the internet itself. If you watch Netflix, call an Uber, or meet on Zoom, a cloud data center is delivering the processing power and data storage to make your experience possible. “But cloud systems have a serious problem,” says Christina Delimitrou, Electrical and Computer Engineering, “—unpredictability.” As a business service, cloud computing has provided the infrastructure for a veritable tech explosion in the past decade. An internet startup can purchase a small plot in the cloud and then expand as business grows, all without buying or... Read more

Cornell community rallies to make masks to address PPE shortages

By: Alek Mehta

Faculty, students and staff in the College of Art, Architecture and Planning joined the College of Engineering to assist an urgent request by Weill Cornell Medicine to rapidly 3D-print visors to protect doctors at the forefront of the COVID-19 health crisis. Jenny Sabin, the associate dean of AAP, told The Sun that Prof. Kirstin Hagelskjaer Petersen, electrical and computer engineering, contacted her to help Weill Cornell Medicine. They estimated that they needed 20,000 to 50,000 visors daily and needed them from anyone who could help. Read more

ECE undergrad’s NSF fellowship will support Ph.D. research

Eric Lei ’20, a student of ECE Associate Professor Christoph Studer, has been awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students pursuing degrees in STEM fields. The program’s goal is to help ensure the vitality and diversity of the scientific and engineering workforce of the United States. The GRFP provides three years of educational support for individuals whose research has demonstrated potential for significant achievements in their fields. The program... Read more