EE News & Events

November 2009

EE professor earn funding

Mathias Schubert, associate professor of electrical engineering, earned a $299,915 grant from the National Science Foundation together with 8 UNL co-PIs for support of the project "MRI: Development of an Optical Hall Effect Instrumentation for non-contact Nanostructure Electrical Characterization". The project will develop unique optical instrumentation at UNL, and is expected to have impacts on the further advancement of nanoelectronics and nanooptoelectronic materials research. M. Schubert further receives $224,998 from the U.S. Army Research Office. The award is part of the $800,000 STTR phase II award received by J.A.Woollam Co. for design and application research of a new Terahertz Ellipsometer system. M. Schubert also receives $24,991 from J.A.Woollam Co., Inc. for technology development of combined optical and mechanical spectroscopy techniques. An award of $25,000 was made to Mathias Schubert by the NSF-EPSCoR program for pilot studies for Ellipsometry applications in Chemical and Biochemical sensing.

August 2009

EE professors earn funding

Mathias Schubert, associate professor of electrical engineering, earned a $232,000 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for Effects of Polarization Fields and Surface Charge Layers on p-Type Conductivity in In(Ga)N. The project is expected to have impacts on the further advancement of optoelectronics, solid state lighting, and solar cells. The work provides training of graduate and postdoctoral students and includes education outreach activities for solar energy use in remote areas of Nebraska. Schubert is also active in professional societies and organizes several symposia on ellipsometry in scientific conferences.

Wei Qiao, assistant professor of electrical engineering, gained an NSF Grant for $214,754 to study Intelligent Optimal Mechanical Sensorless Control of Variable-Speed Wind Energy Systems Considering System Uncertainties. This research aims to (1) develop a neural-network-based, real-time wind speed and direction estimator and turbine shaft speed estimator, (2) develop an adaptive critic design-based supervisory wind turbine controller, (3) optimize the parameters of the estimators and controller by evolutionary swarm intelligence algorithms, (4) perform a stability analysis for the wind energy systems with the controller, and (5) verify the modeling and control framework and methodology by simulations and hardware implementations. The work will investigate in depth the use of bio-inspired design principles to handle the complexities of wind energy conversion. It will further exploit the benefits of wind power by reducing the cost and improving the efficiency, dynamic performance, and reliability of wind energy systems--essential to reaching the goal of supplying 20% of the nation’s electricity by wind. Qiao also received a Department of Energy (DOE) grant for $380,398 on Online Nonintrusive Condition Monitoring and Fault Detection for Wind Turbines as part of the DOE’s $12.8 million in Recovery Act funds for wind energy projects. Qiao’s work will help address market and deployment challenges including wind turbine research and testing and transmission analysis, planning, and assessments.

Ming Han and Senem Velipasalar, assistant professors of electrical engineering, were honored with Nebraska EPSCoR First Award Grants of $20,000 each, funded by the NSF for promising early career research.

EE Department mourns alumnus' death

Terry Bundy, who earned a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1971 and an M.S. in electrical engineering in 1973 at UNL, passed away Sunday, Aug. 16 at age 60 of cancer. Bundy worked for 37 years at Lincoln Electric System (LES) in engineering positions. Named deputy administrator in July 1996, he became administrator and CEO in August 1997.

Bundy also served on the UNL Electrical Engineering Advisory Board at one time and was a 27-year contributor to the college.

To honor of Bundy's service to LES and its customers, the administrative board re-named the Salt Valley Generating Station north of Lincoln the Terry Bundy Generating Station.

In 2008, Bundy received the James D. Donovan Individual Achievement Award from the American Public Power Association in recognition of his significant individual contributions to the electric utility industry and to public power.

According to the Lincoln Journal Star, he was a member of numerous professional organizations, including the National Society of Professional Engineers, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the North American Reliability Council, Midwest Independent System Organization and the Midwest Reliability Organization Board. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Nebraska Municipal Power Pool, Lincoln Chamber of Commerce, Nebraska Utility Corporation, Nebraska Power Association, and District Energy Corporation.

Spring 2009

Williams gains APS Outstanding Referee designation

P. Frazer Williams, UNL's Lott Distinguished Professor Emeritus with the Department of Electrical Engineering, is one of 360 journal reviewers receiving the American Physical Society's Outstanding Referee designation, a lifetime honor, in 2009. The APS has 47,000 physicist members worldwide.

Gursoy receives Best Paper Award from EURASIP

Mustafa "Cenk" Gursoy, assistant professor of electrical engineering, received "The 2004-2007 Journal of Wireless Communications and Networking Best Paper Award" from the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP), founded in 1978. The award will be presented during the 17th EUSIPCO Conference: August 24-28, 2009 in Glasgow, Scotland. Gursoy co-wrote the award-winning paper, "On-Off Frequency-Shift Keying for Wideband Fading Channels," published in 2006, with H. Vincent Poor and Sergio Verdœ.

 

March 2009

Graduate students gain fellowship honors

Two electrical engineering graduate students were awarded Woollam Fellowships for the 2009-10 academic year. They are Chad Kamler and Craig Zuhlke. One graduating senior, Bahar Laderian was also awarded a Woollam Fellowship.

Chad Kalmer is pursuing his Ph.D. and working with Dr. Rodney Soukup. Chad's research involves the synthesis characterization and application of a new photovoltaic material, copper indium boron diselenide (CIBS). Chad is an active member of IEEE.

Craig Zuhlke is working with Dr. Dennis Alexander. Craig's research goal as a Ph.D. student is to use femtosecond and attosecond lasers to produce nanostructures on the electrodes of ultracapacitors. He is an active member of the student chapter of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and has been President of the UNL student chapter of IEEE. Craig has assisted with cleanup and rebuilding homes in Mississippi associated with hurricane Katrina, and also spent a summer in Anchorage, Alaska working with Native Alaskans as part of a mission project.

Bahar Laderian is an undergraduate in the electrical engineering department pursuing her B.S. degree in May 2009. She plans to continue her studies and earn her M.S. in electrical engineering and aims to design medical equipment.

January 2009

Schubert earns CAREER award

Eva Franke Schubert has received a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. Her $400,000 grant, "Chiral Nanostructure Hybrid Materials for Applications in Terahertz Resonator and Magnetic Storage Devices," will support research on electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of hybrid nanostructure materials prepared by glancing angle deposition for the next five years.
More...

Electrical Engineering News Archive:

---

• 2008

  January 2008

  Graduate Student Receives Student Paper Award
  

  Electrical engineering graduate student Yaoxuan Han received second place in the 2007 International Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics (ICALEO) Student Paper Award Contest. Yaoxuan Han presented "Laser-Assisted Diamond Deposition on Copper Substrated using Combustion-Flame Method (M801)."

  The conference is the largest annual event of the Laser Institute of America and included 566 participants. The first and third place awards were won by German and Russian teams.

  His paper will now enter the peer review process for the Journal of Laser Applications for publishing.

  August 2006

  Mustafa "Cenk" Gursoy has recently received the NSF CAREER Award for his project "CAREER: Energy-Efficient Wireless Communications Under Channel Uncertainty: Fundamental Limits and Tradeoffs." The CAREER award is the National Science Foundation's most prestigious award given in support of the early career-development activities of new faculty members who most effectively integrate research and education within the context of the mission of their organization. The goal of his project is to establish the fundamental performance limits of wireless communications when channel conditions are imperfectly known, and developenergy-efficient communication techniques.

  Dr. Gursoy also received the Layman's Award for his project "Efficient Communication Designs for Energy-Constrained Wireless Ad-hoc and Sensor Networks". The Layman Award is a UNL award aimed at providing seed money for projects that will enhance faculty members' ability to obtain external funding or produce prominent scholarly work.

• 2006

  August 2006

  Dennis Alexander, Kingery Professor of electrical engineering, has been chosen to be featured in the July 24, 2006 issue of Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science and Technology. The Virtual Journal is publish by American Institute of Physics and the American Physical Society and contains articles that have appeared in participating source journal on specific topics. Dr. Alexander's article "Demonstration of a nanoparticle-based optical diode" co-written with J. Bruce III, C. Zuhlke, B. Koch, R. Rudebusch, J. Deogun, and H. Hamza and which was originally published in Optics Letters.

  August 2006

  John Woollam, a George Holmes Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering was named a fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). The AVS is a non-profit society that promotes communication on research between different organizations. The society was founded in 1953 and promotes communication though annual symposium and numerous topical conferences throughout the year.

  Dr. Woollam is also a fellow in the American Physical Society. John Woollam started at the University in 1979 with an education in both Physics and Electrical Engineering. Woollam's group at UNL automated a spectroscopic ellipsometer in the late 80s to use for studying new semiconductor materials. The merits of this automated instrument developed interest from visiting scientists who wanted a system for themselves. In a daring step, Woollam formed his own company to produce automated ellipsometers. With continued growth, the company is now a world-leader in spectroscopic ellipsometry.

  August 2006

  Mathias M. Schubert, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, received the 2006 Ludwig-Genzel-Prizefor his contributions to generalized infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry and application to numerous problems in solid state science. The Ludwig-Genzel-Prize is awarded to a young scientist for exceptional contributions to the field of condensed-matter spectroscopy. The prize is awarded every two years during the International Conference on Low Energy Electrodynamics in Solids (LEES), which was held this year in Tallinn. Read more

  August 2006

  Yongfeng Lu has received several grants recently. Lu was the PI on an NSF grant for "Self-Aligned Nanomanufacturing of Carbon Nanotubes for Nanoelectronics." He was also a PI on an NSF grant for "SGER: Near-Field-Controlled Nanoscale Coating of Functional Thin Films for Nanodevices." Dr Lu also received a grant for Rotational Raman Spectroscopy for Analyzing Semiconductor Crystal Orientation from the Panasonic Boston Lab.

  August 2006

  Rod Soukup and Nat Ianno have received a grant from the Nebraska Research Initiative for "A New Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Material for High Efficiency Solar Cells." They have also received a grant from the Department of Energy for "CIBS Solar Cell Development." Both of these grants are both in collaboration with colleagues at UNK. These projects are related and are the study of a new material which has the potential of being used to fabricate highly efficient solar cells. Dr. Soukup and Dr. Ianno are also working on a grant from the Army Research Laboratory on "Thin Films of Ba 1-xSr xTiO 3 on Cost Effective Substrates: A Modeling, Simulation and Experimental Program." This grant deals with a dielectric material, barium-strontium titanate for use in small electronically steerable antennas and varactor capacitors.

• 2005

  2005 William M. Portnoy Award

  Jerry Hudgins, chair of electrical engineering and colleagues from UNL, the University of South Carolina and Cambridge University in Great Britain, received the 2005 William M. Portnoy Award for their presentation, "Modeling of IGBT Resistive and Inductive Turn-On Behavior." This is the top award presented for a technical paper and presentation among papers given in sessions sponsored by Power Electronic Devices and Components Committee of the IEEE Industry Applications Society. The conference is one of three top-tier international meetings for Power Electronics, Devises, and Electric Machine Drives.

  Award Winners of the Graduate Student Paper Competition for 2005/06 in Electrical Engineering

  

  Pictured are Dr. Sina Balkir, Graduate Chair of Electrical Engineering, First Place, Jing Shi, Ph.D. student, advisor Dr. Yongfeng Lu, Second Place, Gulin Tulunay, Ph.D. student, advisor Dr. Sina Balkir, and Third Place, James Hughenin-Love, M.S. student, advisor Dr. Rodney Soukup and Dr. Jerry Hudgins, Chair of Electrical Engineering. The winners received a certificate and a monetary award for their endeavors.

  Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation Award

  April, 2006 - James D. McFarland a junior at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln received the Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation award. This scholarship is awarded on academic merit in the fields of mathematics, science and engineering. Over a thousand nominations were received and 323 were awarded. James is majoring in Electrical Engineering and plans to receive a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and conduct research focused on solid state semiconductors at a major university.

  R. J. Soukup, Henson Professor of Electrical Engineering

  R. J. Soukup, Henson Professor of Electrical Engineering, was awarded the prestigious 2005 Meritorious Service Award from the Education Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers at the Frontiers in Education Conference in Indianapolis, IN on Friday, October 24, 2005. His plaque reads "For meritorious service to the Education Society, for service as Treasurer, and for mentoring many members of the society." Click here for more information.

  Available- "One Hundred Years of Excellence: The Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Nebraska 1895-1995" a book by A. John Boye. Click here to learn more information and how to order a copy.

  top