ECE graduate student Patrick Doody received a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship for 2008. Each year NSF offers about 1,000 fellowships nationwide to provide graduate students with up to $40,000 annual support for three years.

Prof. Sriram Vishwanath is working on a novel solution to the wireless bandwidth needs of the future. Wireless multimedia applications require significant bandwidth, some of which will be provided by third-generation (3G) services. Even with substantial investment in 3G infrastructure, the radio spectrum allocated to 3G will be limited.

Professors Jon Valvano and John Pearce are testing an enhancement to pacemakers that measures heart volume. For many, heart disease is a cycle: the heart swells, the lungs get wet, and drug therapy in a hospital is the treatment. Early detection of increased heart volume could drastically reduce medical expenses and dramatically improve a patient's quality of life.

Dr. Joydeep Ghosh applies data mining techniques to remotely sensed and GIS data to develop a comprehensive framework for efficient and accurate mapping, monitoring, and modeling of land cover and changes in usage over large regions.

Dr. Arjang Hassibi's research focuses on new approaches to sense, detect, and analyze biological systems using integrated systems and advanced signal processing techniques. His interdisciplinary research group addresses technical challenges at the interface of engineering and biotechnology.

His current research focuses on developing ultra-high throughput, ultra-low cost portable biosensors. These devices will lead to a significant cost-savings, throughput increases, and enable heretofore infeasible biological assays making in the field biological testing a reality.

ECE grad student Chulhan Lee, Prof. Sriram Vishwanath, Texas A&M Prof Tie Liu, and Intel's Dr. Ozgur Oyman received the Best Paper Award at the 2008 International Conference on Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks and Communications (CrownCom). Their paper Limits on Cognitive Communications in the Wideband Regime proposes a novel solution to the wireless bandwidth needs of the future.

One of Professor Hao Ling's graduate students, Shobha Sundar Ram, won the Best Student Paper Award at the 2008 IEEE Radar Conference. Her paper Simulation of Human MicroDopplers using Computer Animation Data outlines a new way to aid tracking human activities through building walls and other non-line-of-sight environments. This technology has important applications in search and rescue missions, law enforcement operations, and surveillance.

ECE PhD candidate, Savithri Sundareswaran, Professor Jacob Abraham, Alexandre Ardelea, and Rajendran Panda won one of three best paper awards given at the 9th International Symposium on Quality Electronic Design (ISQED 2008). The paper, Characterization of Standard Cells for Intra-Cell Mismatch Variations, discusses a new approach to predicting delay variations of gates/cells. Instead of categorizing each device fluctuation separately, the team analyzed the fluctuations in switching and non-switching devices and their impact on delay variations.

As the Texas’ electric grid operator prepares to add power lines for carrying future wind-generated energy, Dr. Surya Santoso is developing improved methods for determining the extent to which power from a wind farm can displace a conventional power plant, and how best to regulate varying wind power.

U.S. Representative Lamar Smith announced early this year he had obtained a $1.2 million appropriation for ECE researchers to create advanced wireless communications devised for military use. The research will be a collaborative effort by Computer Engineering Research Center (CERC) professors Jacob Abraham and Ranjit Gharpurey and Wirelss Networking and Communications Group (WNCG) professors Ted Rappaport and Sriram Vishwanath.