Team Leadership Step-by-Step: Hire the Right People
2020-02-07 13:00 - 13:30 (America/New_York) | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
20 minute lessons at 1 pm (almost) every Friday, open to all!
Questions? Contact Ted at ted.johnson@northeastern.edu
View the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

3D Printing Prusa
2020-02-07 15:30 - 16:00, 2020-02-13 13:00 - 13:30, 2020-02-19 10:30 - 11:00 | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
This workshop is an introduction to the Prusa 3D printer. Learn how to load filament, start a print job, and remove prints from the print bed
Sign up using this link!
View the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Webinar (MIE)
2020-02-10 10:00 - 11:00
The webinar will feature a talk by Program Director Marilyn Minus, who will present information on the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (MIE) program at Northeastern University. The MIE Department offers comprehensive research and educational programs for MS and PhD students in traditional mechanical and industrial engineering disciplines, as well as applied programs. Our cutting-edge and vibrant Doctoral Programs (PhD) include Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Interdisciplinary Engineering. Our Masters Programs (MS) consists of Mechanical Engineering with concentrations in Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanics and Design, Mechatronic, and Thermofluids Engineering, Energy Systems, Engineering Management, as well as Industrial Engineering with a concentration in Operations Research. Recently added to the department are Robotics, Energy Systems (including Academic Link), and Engineering Management. We offer a leading professional MS program in Engineering Management. This concentration allows for a degree that meets a wide variety of personal needs and industry goals.
WEBINAR DETAILS
Topic: Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
Date: Monday, February 10
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM EST
From these 60-minute info sessions, you’ll walk away with an understanding of:

The Mechanical & Industrial Engineering program in general, including electives, core courses, and program options
Specific parameters for admissions
How to pursue a paid 4-8 month industry co-op as part of your degree plan

WEBINAR INSTRUCTIONS: Visit to register and to get oriented to the webinar software, otherwise, login 10 minutes before the session begins.
RSVP and let us know if you will attend.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Seminar: Xiaolin Xu
2020-02-10 11:00 - 12:00
Location: ISEC 138
Ensuring Hardware Cybersecurity from a Cross-Layer Perspective
Abstract:
The rapid development of the semiconductor industry has significantly increased the number, complexity, and applicability of commercial electronics over the past few decades. As a result, the security and assurance of hardware are playing a critical role in the cyberscape of modern society, such as national defense, healthcare, transportation, and finances. Hardware has been assumed to be trustworthy and reliable “by default.” However, this assumption is no longer true, with an increasing number of attacks reported on the hardware. In practice, the globalization of semiconductor business poses grave risks from untrusted fabrication and distribution, where Trojans insertion, IP cloning, and counterfeits may happen. In this talk, I will present our research efforts dedicated to the hardware-oriented cybersecurity from a cross-layer perspective. Specifically, I will introduce two frameworks that we built to address these problems in the supply chain and embedded system layers. I will first present an identification technique based on the physical disorder of integrated circuitry that enables the authentication of electronic devices. Then, I will present a hardware IP protection framework based on logic locking and circuit editing, which can effectively mitigate the vulnerabilities from untrusted off-shore foundries and supply chains. At the end of the talk, I will briefly present our scientific achievements in advancing the hardware security in the system and architecture layers, as well as proposing a future research agenda of this emerging area.
Bio:
Dr. Xiaolin Xu is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Prior to joining UIC, he spent two years at Post-doc Fellow at the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity (FICS) research center at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2016 after he got the B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2008 and 2011, respectively. His research interests span hardware security and trust, FPGA, IoT security, VLSI, computer architecture, embedded system, and hardware-software co-design for modern computing systems. He is also interested in developing IoT devices and cloud-computing infrastructures with particular emphasis on security, high-performance, privacy protection.

Intro to Manufacturing
2020-02-10 19:00 - 20:30 | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
Design for Manufacturing workshop lead by M4
View the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

Networking @ Night 2020: BU NSBE x SHPE
2020-02-10 19:00 - 21:00
BU’s Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the BU’s National Society of Black Engineers are co-hosting this upcoming Spring: Networking at Night 2020. Recruiters, that include those from Northeastern and students from various industry partners, graduate schools, and research groups, will come together for an encouraging and informative evening for our membership. The event is open to the greater engineering community, and attendees will also have the opportunity to network with a broad talent pool. The event will take place at Boston University’s Howard Thurman Center.
Register Now

Electrical and Computer Engineering Webinar
2020-02-11 10:00 - 11:00
The webinar will feature a talk by Program Director Masoud Salehi, who will present information on the Electrical and Computer Engineering program (ECE) at Northeastern University. Located in the booming technology, medical, and research hub of Boston, Northeastern ‘s Department of ECE provides excellent research and learning opportunities for its students and alumni. The ECE faculty and graduate students conduct world-class research in the field. With over 65 full-time and affiliated faculty members, ECE is home to experts in a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to information infrastructure and security, health and biomedical applications of electrical engineering, brain-computer interface, nanotechnology, and nanomaterials.
WEBINAR DETAILS:
Topic: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Date: Tuesday, February 11
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM EST
WEBINAR INSTRUCTIONS
RSVP and let us know if you will attend.

Electrical and Computer Engineering Seminar: Qing Qu
2020-02-11 11:30 - 12:30
Location: ISEC 138
Title: Learning Low-complexity Models from the Data – Geometry, Optimization, and Applications
Abstract:
Today we are collecting a massive amount of data in forms of images and videos, that we want to learn from the data themselves to extract useful information and to make predictions. The data are high-dimensional, but often possess certain low-dimensional structures (e.g., sparsity). However, learning these low-complexity models often results in highly nonconvex optimization problems, where in the past our understandings of solving them were very limited. In the worst case, optimizing a nonconvex problem is NP-hard.
In this talk, we present global nonconvex optimization theory and guaranteed algorithms for efficient learning of low-complexity models from high-dimensional data. For several important problems in imaging science (i.e., sparse blind deconvolution) and representation learning (i.e., convolutional/overcomplete dictionary learning), we show that the underlying symmetry and low-complexity structures avoid the worst-case scenarios, leading to benign global geometric properties of the nonconvex optimization landscapes. In particular, for sparse blind deconvolution that aims to jointly learn the underlying physical model and sparse signals from convolutions, the geometric intuitions lead to efficient nonconvex algorithms, with linear convergence to target solutions. Moreover, we extended our geometric analysis to convolutional dictionary learning based on its similarity with overcomplete dictionary learning, providing the first global algorithmic guarantees for both problems. Finally, we demonstrate our methods on several important applications in scientific discovery and draw connections to learning deep neural networks.
This talk is mainly based on one paper appeared in NeurIPS’19 (spotlight), and two papers accepted by ICLR’20 (one oral).
Bio:
Qing Qu is a Moore-Sloan data science fellow at the Center for Data Science, New York University. He received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in Electrical Engineering in Oct. 2018. He received his B.Eng. from Tsinghua University in Jul. 2011, and an M.Sc.from the Johns Hopkins University in Dec. 2012, both in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He interned at U.S. Army Research Laboratory in 2012 and Microsoft Research in 2016, respectively. His research interest lies at the intersection of the foundation of data science, machine learning, numerical optimization, and signal/image processing. His research focuses on developing computational methods for learning low-complexity models/structures from high dimensional data, leveraging tools from machine learning, numerical optimization, and high dimensional probability/geometry. He is also interested in applying these data-driven methods to various engineering problems in imaging sciences, scientific discovery, and healthcare. He is the recipient of Best Student Paper Award at SPARS’15 (with Ju Sun and John Wright), and the recipient of Microsoft Ph.D. Fellowship 2016-2018 in machine learning.

Basic Soldering
2020-02-11 13:00 - 13:30 | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
This workshop is an introduction to soldering. Learn how to solder two wires together and apply heat-shrink tubing using a Weller soldering station and an SMD Rework station
Sign up using this link!
View the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

BMES/AIChE Co-op-Career Fair
2020-02-12 10:00 - 14:30 | Curry Student Center, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA, 02115, United States
The BMES/ AIChE Co–op Career fair will be held in the Curry Student Center Ballroom from 10am – 2:30pm on Wednesday, February 12th. This is a great opportunity to meet employers hiring for the Fall 2020 cycle, especially employers you may have already applied to for co-op.

3D Printing Form 2
2020-02-12 10:30 - 11:00, 2020-02-13 13:45 - 14:15, 2020-02-19 11:15 - 11:45 | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
This workshop is an introduction to the Form 2 3D printer. Learn how to start, wash, and cure a print job
Sign up using this link!
View the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

Electrical and Computer Engineering Seminar: Basak Guler
2020-02-12 11:00 - 12:00
ISEC 138
Coded Computing for Next-Generation Information Processing Systems
Abstract:
Modern networks are designed to facilitate information processing in large-scale, highly distributed environments that connect humans with smart machines. Information collected in such networks is often privacy-sensitive, such as healthcare records, financial transactions, or geolocation data. Moreover, these networks often need to operate in unknown environments using unreliable information sources, which can lead to various interpretations of the received information. This brings three main challenges in designing effective distributed information-processing frameworks: scalability, privacy, and context-awareness. In this talk, I will discuss how to address these challenges through information and coding theory principles. I will first introduce a fast and privacy-preserving framework for distributed machine learning, which can provide an order of magnitude speedup over the existing cryptographic approaches. Next, I will address a major bottleneck for the scalability of large-scale distributed computing frameworks, the interprocessor communication load, in the context of distributed graph processing. To do so, I will introduce a topology-aware graph allocation and communication strategy using coding theory and demonstrate that it can reduce the inter-processor communication load significantly for both real-world and random graph structures. Finally, I will discuss the fundamental performance limits of information transmission in context-aware multiuser communication networks. I will characterize the information-theoretic performance limits for lossy transmission of correlated sources in a multi-user communication channel when the communicating parties have access to context information correlated with the sources.
Bio:
Basak Guler is a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Southern California. She received her M.Sc. and PhD from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Pennsylvania State University. Her research interests include information and coding theory, distributed computing, wireless communications, graph signal processing, machine learning, privacy and security, and game theory. She is a recipient of the Dr. Nirmal K. Bose Dissertation Award by the Pennsylvania State University, the Young Scholar Award by the Turkish-American Scientists and Scholars Association, and was named a Rising Star in EECS by MIT.

Power Tools
2020-02-12 13:00 - 13:30 | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
This workshop is an introduction to the hand drill, impact driver, and dremel rotary tool. Learn how to drill pilot holes, drive screws, and sand wood
Sign up using this link!
View the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

Advanced Hand Tools
2020-02-12 13:45 - 14:15 | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
This workshop is an introduction to the arbor press, tap and die kit, and ultrasonic cutter. Learn how to use each tool effectively
Sign up using this link!
View the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

Electrical and Computer Engineering Seminar: Najme Ebrahimi
2020-02-13 15:00 - 16:00 | 136 ISEC, 360 Huntington Ave, 136 ISEC, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
Location: ISEC 136
Next Generation of Smart Wireless World: from High Data-Rate Mm-wave Directional Arrays to Reliable and Secured IoT Connectivity for 5G and Beyond
Abstract:
The next generation of smart wireless world requires massive and reliable connectivity as well as high datarate communication and sensing. Consequently, the immediate response of the wireless world is acquiring the mm-wave (MMW) wireless band (30 GHz–300 GHz) and the development of 5G and beyond. The major challenge of deploying high data-rate communication system at MMW frequency bands is the channel fading and multi-path diffraction effect. Hence, multiple-element transceivers such as scalable “directional” phased array or massive MIMO are required. Moreover, the next generation of wireless world is expected to have over one trillion Internet of Things (IoT) devices connected, requiring secured connectivity such as protection against interference, jammers, and eavesdroppers In this talk, I will present novel techniques to overcome the challenges for future scalable high data-rate MMW transceiver array from silicon circuit toward RFIC system and packaging. This includes parasitic-insensitive, power-efficient, and wideband 2×2 arrays of injection-locked oscillators for efficient local oscillator (LO) distribution and phase shifting (circuit technique), image selection Weaver architecture to significantly reduce the required bandwidth of the LO generation circuitry for the MMW system from conventional 20% to only 4% (RFIC architecture), and compact differential aperture coupled LO distribution feed network for compact and scalable antenna-IC integration (packaging). I will also discuss several future directions toward high-frequency signal generation and modulation based on integrating the circuit and electromagnetics fundamental theories for communication and sensing above 100 GHz, namely, as 6G. On the other hand, employing a “directional” antenna for interference/eavesdropper cancellation for IoTs suffers from side-lobe leakage and requires accurate beam alignment and localization. In this talk, I will present a novel embedded architecture for a distributed IoT network that utilizes a masterslave full-duplex communication using an omnidirectional antenna to exchange a random modulated phase shift as the secret key while canceling out the eavesdropper effect. I will also discuss two future directions for interference cancellation from circuit level to system level; from cooperative and distributed pulse coupled synchronization for dynamically interference canceling towards wideband interference canceller/filter at RF front-end of IoT devices using a single antenna to turn the radio with one-bit ADC into reality
Bio:
Najme Ebrahimi is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the University of Michigan (U-M) since September 2017. At the University of Michigan, she is mainly conducting research on both mm-Wave/THz high data rate communication and sensing in addition to the connectivity of the next generation of distributed Internet-of-Things network. She earned her PhD from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) in June 2017, with a thesis emphasize on enabling high data rate and scalable mm-wave phased array for the next generation of smart wireless world. She received her MS degree and BS degree, with highest honors, from Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2011 and Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran, in 2009, respectively. She is a member of IEEE Solid-State Circuits and IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques societies. She is the recipient of PhD Endowed Graduate Fellowship from UCSD (2012-2013) and U-M Departmental Postdoctoral Fellowship (20172019). She is currently serving as the vice-chair of IEEE Southeastern Michigan for Microwave Theory and Techniques Chapter where she is awarded MTT-s Travel Grant (2019). She is selected as 2019 EECS Rising Star by MIT launched Rising-star program and 2020 ISSCC Rising Star by IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society

Galante Event: Breaking Down Barriers to Creative Solutions with Dr. Khosrowjerdi
2020-02-13 18:00 - 19:30 | 102 ISEC, 360 Huntington Ave, 102 ISEC, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
The Galante Engineering Business Program is excited to host Breaking Down Barriers to Creative Solutions with Dr. Khosrowjerdi (KJ) on February 13th, 2020 in ISEC 102 from 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
In addition to teaching in the Mechanical Engineering department at Western New England University, Dr. KJ has also been designing and building fully automated mechatronic systems and providing consulting services in the area of factory automation, process control, mechanical testing, water, wastewater, and nitrogen monitoring systems, database management and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to local and national companies. In this seminar, you will learn how he has designed, built, and implemented numerous integrated systems for Spalding, Smith and Wesson, Lamb Knitting Machines, FN Manufacturing (South Carolina), Remington, National Guard, United Aerospace, Shaeffler, Barden Bearing, Entwistle, Newall Rubbermaid, Sig Sauer, Stanley Black & Decker and many more. Dr. KJ is honored to share with you his 40 years of experience in teaching and working with over 100 companies in the fields of mechatronics and consulting services.
Please RSVP by Feb. 10th. Feel free to reach out to Galante@northeastern.edu with any questions.

Team Leadership Step-by-Step: Prepare Your Leadership Style(s)
2020-02-14 13:00 - 13:30 | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
20 minute lessons at 1 pm (almost) every Friday, open to all!
Questions? Contact Ted at ted.johnson@northeastern.edu
Visit the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

Sewing Machine
2020-02-14 15:30 - 16:00 | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
This workshop is an introduction to the Brother sewing machine. Learn how to operate the sewing machine while sewing your very own pillow
Sign up using this link!
View the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

Engineers Week: Cool Women Hot Careers
2020-02-15 09:00 - 15:30 | Raytheon Amphitheater (240 Egan), 360 Huntington Ave, 240 Egan, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
Cool Women/Hot Careers, hosted by the College of Engineering and the Society of Women Engineers, is a great way for high school students (especially sophomores & juniors in high school) who love math and science to learn more about the field of engineering and meet some of our women engineering students.
9:00 am – Registration and light breakfast
9:30 am – Keynote Speaker
10:00 am – Introduction and Overview of Engineering
10:30 am – Student Panel
11:45 am – Break
12:00 pm – Lunch at a Northeastern dining hall with women engineering students
1:00 pm – Engineering Activities
3:15 pm – Wrap up & Departure
(Optional ½ hour campus tour at 3:30 pm)
Parents, teachers, and guidance counselors are welcome as well.
Reserve your spot by February 12th
http://bit.ly/CWHC2020

Engineers Week: Info Booth
2020-02-18 09:00 - 11:00 | Curry Student Center, 360 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA, 02115, United States
We are celebrating National Engineers Week! Come learn about the events, activities and distinguished speakers on campus.
Free donuts and COE swag.
Curry Student Center Crossroads

Engineers Week: Harnessing Metamaterials to Manipulate Electromagnetic and Acoustic Waves
2020-02-18 10:30 - 11:30 | 138 ISEC, 360 Huntington Ave, 138 ISEC, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
Dr. Xin Zhang, Professor, Boston University
Location: 138 ISEC
Metamaterials have been intensively studied and applied to a broad range of practical applications ranging from wireless communications to magnetic resonance imaging. Photonic metamaterials consisting of subwavelength “meta-atoms” have received enormous interest due to their extraordinary and unprecedented optical properties. Specifically, the effective permittivity and permeability can be tailored and reconfigured to construct metamaterial devices by modulating or actuating the constituent meta-atoms. By leveraging microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technology, we have developed functional metamaterial devices to manipulate and detect the terahertz waves. In addition, metamaterials exhibit extraordinary near-field properties to control electric and magnetic field distribution. I will introduce our progress on intelligent magnetic metamaterials to enhance the signal to noise ratio of magnetic resonance imaging. Besides electromagnetic metamaterials, acoustic metamaterials for sound wave shaping and silencing will also be discussed.
Xin Zhang received her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). She was a Postdoctoral Researcher and then a Research Scientist with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She then joined Boston University (BU) as a Faculty Member, where she is currently a Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science & Engineering, and the Photonics Center. Dr. Zhang is the Associate Director of the Boston University Nanotechnology Innovation Center and Director of both the NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) and Teachers (RET) Sites in Integrated Nanomanufacturing at Boston University.
Dr. Zhang’s research interests are in the broad areas of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS or microsystems) and metamaterials (acoustic, electromagnetic, nonlinear, photonic, terahertz, tunable, etc.). She has published 160+ papers in interdisciplinary journals, become both US and EU-US National Academy of Engineering Invitee (ages: 30-45), and is an Elected Fellow of AAAS, AIMBE, APS, ASME, IEEE, NAI, and OSA, and Associate Fellow of AIAA.
Hosted by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

Electrical and Computer Engineering Seminar: Murat Kocaoglu
2020-02-18 11:30 - 12:30
Location: ISEC 138
Causality: From Learning to Generative Models
Abstract:
Causal inference is fundamental for multiple disciplines ranging from medical research to engineering, statistics, and economics. It is also central in machine learning and is now becoming a core component of artificial intelligence research. Although causal inference has been studied for a long time in various fields under different frameworks, today we need tools that can process a large number of variables to handle modern large datasets. The graphical approach to probabilistic causation advocated by Judea Pearl and others provides a way to compactly represent the causal relations using directed acyclic graphs and paves the way for the design of algorithms that can answer causal questions for many variables.
In this talk, Kocaoglu first provides a friendly introduction to causality and explain why causal understanding is important. As his first contribution, he will propose a framework called entropic causal inference for inferring the causal direction between two variables from data. He will show that entropy can be used to capture the complexity of a causal mechanism. Further, if the true direction has a simple mechanism, we can identify it from data. The entropic causal inference framework leverages tools from information theory for causal inference. As his second contribution, he will show how we can apply causality in deep generative models – deep neural networks used for modeling complex data. He will demonstrate how to define and train a causal deep generative model, called CausalGAN for generating images with labels. As an extension of generative adversarial networks (GANs), CausalGAN allows sampling not only from the observed data distribution but also from the interventional distributions of images. He will conclude with future directions for causal inference and its applications in supervised learning and reinforcement learning.

Bio:
Murat Kocaoglu received his B.S. degree in Electrical – Electronics Engineering with a minor degree in Physics from the Middle East Technical University in 2010. He received his M.S. degree from the Koc University, Turkey in 2012 under the supervision of Prof. Ozgur B. Akan, and PhD degree from The University of Texas at Austin in 2018, under the supervision of Prof. Alex Dimakis and Prof. Sriram Vishwanath. He is currently a Research Staff Member in the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab in IBM Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts. His current research interests include causal inference, generative adversarial networks, and information theory

Engineers Week: MIE Industry Panel
2020-02-18 15:00 - 17:00 | Raytheon Amphitheater (240 Egan), 360 Huntington Ave, 240 Egan, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
Have you been wondering how am I going to land a job? Does my first job matter in terms of my career? The Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering welcomes you to attend our Industry Panel as part of Northeastern’s 2020 Engineers week. We are bringing in alums who are working in a number of fields and have experience from senior levels at GE, to new employees at Boston Engineering. This panel will give both undergraduate and graduate students a look into what its like developing a career in Engineering and giving them a good idea of what to expect when they enter the workforce after completing a Northeastern Degree.
Panelists:

Bob KursmarkChief Consulting Engineer, GE and Founder & Chief Consultant, Experium Engineering Consulting

Marshal DoughtyProject Engineer at NeuroLogica

Rouzbeh AminiAssociate Professor, Northeastern University

Victoria HuntMechanical Engineer, Boston Engineering

Aysun CeyhanFM Global, Staff Vice President, Manager of Advanced Analytics

Hosted by the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering Department.

Vacuum Degassing Chamber
2020-02-18 15:30 - 16:00 | 010 Hayden Hall, 010 Hayden Hall, 360 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, United States
This workshop is an introduction to the vacuum degassing chamber. Learn how to operate the vacuum pump and hold the chamber at a particular pressure
Sign up using this link!
View the Sherman Center Calendar for more events!

Electrical and Computer Engineering Seminar: Arjuna Madanayak
2020-02-19 11:00 - 12:00
Location: ISEC 138
Multidimensional Signal Processing Circuits for Low-SWaP Multi-Beam Arrays
Abstract:
In this talk, array processing circuits that exploit the computing paradigm of approximate computing are explored. Low-size, -weight, and -power consumption (SWaP) algorithms and circuits are proposed to achieve thousands of fully-digital beams for emerging applications. The proposed low-SWaP multibeam digital beamformers use approximate computing to enable up to 90% smaller circuit complexity compared to FFT-based techniques used to achieve multiple orthogonal RF beams. Furthermore, the proposed array processing systems exploit wave physics to improve the performance of key signal processing components in wireless base stations. Specifically, the spatiotemporal causality properties of electromagnetic plane waves – as described in Special Theory of Relativity – are used in novel multi-port transceiver circuits to improve energy efficiency, reduce additive white Gaussian noise, and improve linearity of array receivers at the physical layer. The multi-dimensional frequency-domain region of support (ROS) of all propagating plane waves, which correspond to wireless propagation channels, are shown to be confined inside the “Light Cone”. The region of spacetime outside this light cone is a void (elsewhere) within which wireless communications signals cannot propagate. A “cone of silence” appears in the multidimensional spacetime frequency domain, which demarcates a conical region outside of which waves do not exist. The aim is to spatio-temporally shape noise and transceiver distortion into this electromagnetically silent region so that their presence does not affect the performance of arrays. The technique enables multi-port versions of LNAs, ADCs, and DACs for array processing that exploits noise and shaping in multiple dimensions in space and time to greatly improve performance.
Bio:
Dr. Arjuna Madanayake is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Florida International University. His research interests include multidimensional signal processing, array processing, FPGA and digital systems, microwave circuits, VLSI, analog and mixed-signal circuit design, fast algorithms, digital signal processing, alternative computing, wireless communications, mm-wave systems and 5G/6G topics, sub-THz and THz systems, satellite communications, wireless sensing and imaging, radar sensing, computing architecture, internet of things (IoT), RF sensing for unmanned aerial systems, and electronic warfare. He started an Assistant Professorship at the University of Akron in Ohio in 2010, and received early tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2015. Dr. Madanayake was selected as the most outstanding candidate in Electrical Engineering and Computing Sciences category for the NSERC 2009 Canada Post-doctoral Fellowship competition. Dr. Madanayake completed a postdoctoral associateship in 2009 in which he explored multidimensional signal processing and FPGA circuits for beamformer aperture arrays as part of the Canadian Square Kilometer Array (SKA) effort. He completed the Ph.D. and M.Sc. both in Electrical Engineering at the University of Calgary, specializing in multidimensional signal processing, circuits and systems, especially FPGA systems. In his current tenured appointment at FIU, Dr. Madanayake directs the RF, Analog and Digital (RAND) Circuits Lab at FIU which has been conducting multiple projects funded by 3 DARPA, 3 ONR and 7 NSF awards. Arjuna tries to pursue elephant conservation and rural development in Sri Lanka, and high-end audio engineering as hobbies.

Engineers Week: Photochemistry as a Tool for imaging, Priming and Therapy
2020-02-19 11:45 - 13:25
Dr. Tayyaba Hasan, Professor, Harvard Medical School Health Sciences & Technology, Harvard-MIT
236 Richards Hall
Optically Activated Nanomedicines: Photochemistry as a Tool for imaging, Priming and Therapy
Tayyaba Hasan, PhD
Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Optical activation of materials leads to thermal, photochemical and radiative processes which can be captured for response-based therapeutic design. The ability to use light as a reagent to control drug release further allows for the fabrication of light controllable intelligent multiagent constructs that attack multiple pathways making the nanomedicines more effective against cancer. Combination therapy is a fairly well accepted standard for cancer treatment and management of other diseases. Typically, these are administered separately with their own pharmacokinetics, hitting targets at different times which reduces the synergism potential. Nanomedicines, to some extent can overcome this limitation by delivering the multiple agents to the target site at the same time provided there is synergism in any aspect of the agents. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a photochemistry-based process that is approved for several clinical applications world-wide. It involves the exposure of light activatable molecules to appropriate wavelengths that leads to the generation of active molecular species that is responsible for targeted death. There are many unique attributes to this process. Because of the requirement of light and the photosensitizer being present at the same place at the same time there is an additional level of selectivity. Neither light alone nor the photosensitizer have an effect on target cells by themselves. In addition to the direct cytotoxic effect, the photodynamic activation primes the microenvironment in a process call PhotoDynamic Priming (PDP) to enable a more potent response to conventional treatments so the PDP becomes an enabler of other treatments, particularly when administered in a Nanoplatform. Strategies for syntheses and applications in biology and medicine will be discussed.

Bio: Tayyaba Hasan, Ph.D., is a Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and is a Professor at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. She is a leader in photochemical approaches to treatment and diagnosis using targeted strategies and incorporating nanotechnology. She is an inventor of the FDA approved photodynamic treatment of the leading cause of blindness in the western world, Age-Related Macular Degeneration used in millions of treatments. Her impact on Global Health includes two of her inventions of simple, smart phone-based, low-cost devices, which are being evaluated in clinical studies for treatment of oral cancer and antibiotic identification, in India and Thailand respectively. In recognition of her translational work and innovations she was the recipient of the NIH’s Pioneer Award in Biomedical Optics, Bench to Bedside Translation. She was awarded the Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award in recognition of trailblazing contributions to the field of Photodynamic Therapy, clinical translation and leadership to the photonics community. She has received four Lifetime Achievement awards from leading scientific organizations including the International Photodynamic Association. She has approximately 300 publications and has 12 US issued patents. She leads 2 multicenter international NCI funded programs for developing and translating innovative treatments of oral, pancreatic and skin cancers.
Hosted by Chemical Engineering
