Author: College of Engineering

Sue Hill is the Digital Content Manager for the College of Engineering.

Aurenice Oliveira Receives IEEE Outstanding Branch Counselor Award

Aurenice Oliveira working in the mobility lab.
Aurenice Oliveira working in the mobility lab.

The IEEE Outstanding Branch Counselor and Branch Chapter Advisor Award is for the exceptional and dedicated efforts of Student Branch Counsellors and Branch Chapter Advisors.

This is an international award since the counselors are chosen from all the branches within all the IEEE regions within and outside the USA. The following is Dr. Aurenice Oliveira’s dedication:

“Dear Dr. Aurenice Oliveira,
It is with immense pleasure and great pride that I extend my heartfelt congratulations to you on being selected as a winner of the prestigious IEEE Outstanding Branch Counselor and Branch Chapter Advisor Award for 2023. Your exemplary leadership, dedication, and significant contributions to your Student Branch have been recognized and celebrated.”

IEEE Member and Geographic Activities and Technical Activities Boards

The primary criteria for selection are the enthusiastic support of the Branch Counselor, or Branch Advisor, by his or her students, and the commitment he or she has made to the engineering profession by the fostering of activities that encourage the development of IEEE Student members. The award recipient receives a certificate and other items.

The Member and Geographic Activities and Technical Activities Boards sponsor the cash award to maximum of 20 Outstanding Counsellors and Advisors around the world. Winners are those individuals who, through their work as Counsellors and Advisors, exemplify the Institute’s commitment to the educational, personal, professional, and technical development of students in IEEE related fields of interest.

Durdu Güney on Superlensing

Durdu Güney in the lab.
Durdu Güney in the lab, captured with an optical lensing effect.

Durdu Güney (ECE) was quoted by IEEE Spectrum in a story about a study investigating a new method for “superlensing,” or seeing things smaller than the wavelength of light.

Australian researchers Boris Kuhlmey and coauthor Alessandro Tuniz used numerical calculations to regain high-resolution information needed to amplify a dim signal. The method was used instead of a physical superlens to image objects smaller than the wavelength of light.

The postprocessing central to the Australian approach is similar to techniques routinely used in other areas of microscopy, according to Durdu Güney who studies superlensing at Michigan Tech.

Although the application to imaging is new, Guney says, “conceptually, I think the idea is not very novel.”

His research has used similar techniques in higher optical frequencies, for which superlensing is more advanced. Güney also questions whether the approach will be effective for more complicated objects, some of the features of which may be overwhelmed by noise.

Durdu Güney is an associate professor in Electrical and Computing Engineering. His current research activities include photonic quantum computing, quantum manipulation of light with metamaterials and metasurfaces, magneto-optical metamaterials, and novel noise mitigation techniques for optical imaging. He is on the editorial boards of Opto-Electronic Advances, Journal of Quantum Information Science, Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology, Applied Sciences, and Photonics.

Read more at IEEE Spectrum, by Gwendolyn Rak.

Matt Kouba Wins Excellence in Presentation Award at URSS 2023

Winners Announced: Undergraduate Research & Scholarship Symposium

The Pavlis Honors College hosted the Undergraduate Research & Scholarship Symposium (URSS) last Friday (March 24) in conjunction with the Great Lakes Research Center (GLRC). The event featured a panel discussion in which participants discussed how undergraduate research impacted their present work, two poster sessions and a networking social event that culminated with the announcement of the award winners. In addition to Michigan Tech students, students from the Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College shared their work during this year’s URSS.

Thanks to the Portage Health Foundation and the DeVlieg Foundation for supporting the Undergraduate Research Internship Program as well as to the faculty, staff and graduate students who served as judges for the event.

The winners of the 2023 Undergraduate Research & Scholarship Symposium include computer engineering student Matt Kouba for his poster “Low Cost CAN FD and Automotive Ethernet Development Boards.” Kouba was selected for Excellence in Presentation. Kouba’s faculty advisor was Aurenice Oliveira, Electrical and Computer Engineering.

By the Pavlis Honors College.

Extract from the URSS Booklet 2023:

Low Cost CAN FD and Automotive Ethernet Development Boards

Student Presenter: Matt Kouba, Computer Engineering
Faculty Advisor: Aurenice Oliveira, Electrical and Computer Engineering

CAN FD is currently used in nearly every new vehicle, but at Michigan Tech we do not yet have any resources that can be used in a teaching environment.

To design these teaching systems I have used Altium Designer to design the circuit and Printed Circuit Board layout.

When both the CAN FD and Automotive Ethernet learning systems are completed Michigan Tech will have the first low cost Automotive Ethernet development system for use in a classroom.

MTU RedTeam Places Third in CyberSEED CTF

The MTU RedTeam competed in the 2023 CyberSEED Capture the Flag (CTF) competition, held virtually March 4. The highly competitive seven-hour collegiate CTF engaged 333 students and 118 teams from universities across the country.

Placing third, RedTeam Team 1 earned 2,390 points with 93.41% accuracy. Team members were undergraduates Ryan Klemm (computer science), Audrey LaCost (chem informatics), Joshua Stiebel (computer engineering) and Noah Holland (cybersecurity). The team was awarded a $2,000 prize.

ReadTeam Team 2 placed 73rd in the contest. Team members were undergraduates Noah Hansen, Riley Meeves and Mason Staedt (all cybersecurity) and master’s student Gary Tropp (cybersecurity).

RedTeam Team 3 finished 99th in the event. Team members were undergraduates Ava Gullitti (electrical engineering) and Joshua Stevens (cybersecurity) and master’s student Dev Sanghani (cybersecurity). 

The annual CyberSEED CTF event is hosted by the University of Connecticut. The competition’s cybersecurity challenges included a set of flags focusing on reverse engineering, web application security, network traffic analysis, cryptography and other challenges.

Read more on the Computing News Blog.

Aurenice Oliveira Leads IEEE Section to Membership Retention Award

IEEE Region 4 Northeastern Wisconsin Section Received the 2022 Membership Retention Award

Aurenice Oliveira, the IEEE Section Chair, accepted the award on behalf of the section during IEEE Region 4 RCom Meeting 2023. The meeting took place January 27–January 29 in Chicago. The geographic area of the section also includes Michigan Tech.

Oliveira is an associate professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, the IEEE Region 4 Section 27 chair, an IEEE MTU Student Chapter advisor, an MTU Vice President for Research Faculty Fellow, an ELATES-Drexel Fellow, and an Eta Kappa Nu (HKN) Honor Society Advisor.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. IEEE is the trusted voice for engineering, computing, and technology information around the globe.

Aurenice Olveira stands between two people while accepting an engraved plaque.
Aurenice Oliveira, the IEEE Section Chair, receiving the award on behalf of the Section.
Aurenice Oliveira is seated at a table next to Eduardo Palacio.
Aurenice Oliveira at dinner with the IEEE-USA President Eduardo Palacio.

Bos Group on Testing of Lidar for Autonomous Vehicles

Colorful lidar image of an outdoor area in one image, with a near vertical green line in the second image.
(a) The reference point cloud scan (gray) overlayed with point clouds collected by each of the DUT lidars (colors). (b) Side view of an initial alignment between the reference point cloud (green) and point clouds from the DUT lidars for the 10 m target. Notice that the target is tilted toward the test origin. See the open source article link below.

Jeremy Bos (ECE) was quoted and PhD student Zach Jeffries (electrical engineering) and Akhil Kurup ’22 (PhD, computer engineering) were mentioned by SPIEGreen Car CongressTech XploreBioengineering.org and SCIENMAG in a story about a three-year effort to develop tests and performance standards for lidars used in autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems.

Bos led the testing through its first year, with Jeffries’ assistance. The team’s findings are detailed in an open-access paper published this month in Optical Engineering.

Zach D. JeffriesJeremy P. BosPaul F. McManamon, Charles Kershner, Akhil M. Kurup
Optical Engineering, Vol. 62, Issue 3, 031211 (January 2023). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.62.3.031211

Extract

This paper describes the initial results from the first of 3 years of planned testing aimed at developing methods, metrics, and targets necessary to develop standardized tests for these instruments. Here, we evaluate range error accuracy and precision for eight automotive grade lidars; a survey grade lidar is used as a reference. These lidars are tasked with detecting a static, child-sized, target at ranges between 5 and 200 m.

Our purpose in this work is to motivate the development of test standards in this area and highlight variations in performance between lidars when stated specifications are similar.

Proposed additions to the testing include more complex targets, dynamic targets, placing corner cubes, or identical lidars on the test range, and weather effects.

Maurer, Brock, and Hilliker Present at Defense Manufacturing Conference

The Defense Manufacturing Conference (DMC 2022), was held in Tampa, Florida, on December 5–8. DMC is the nation’s annual forum for enhancing and leveraging the efforts of engineers, managers, technology leaders, scientists, and policy makers across the defense manufacturing industrial base.

Developing Disruptive and Transformational Solutions

Three electrical and computing engineering students presenting their research were:

Michael Maurer (PhD Candidate)
Presentation Title: Periodically Poled Polymers as an Entangled Photon Source

Giard Brock (Undergraduate)
Presentation Title: Ultra-violet Liquid Crystal Display Resin Printer Exposure Method for Rapid Prototyping of Printed Circuit Boards

Austin Hilliker (Undergraduate)
Presentation Title: Utilization of a Commercial Off the Shelf Laser Engraver for Rapid Production of Printed Circuit Boards

Three students check in for the conference.
Giard Brock, Michael Maurer, and Austin Hilliker

Christopher Middlebrook is a Co-recipient of the 2022 CTL Instructional Award for Curriculum Development and Assessment

Christopher Middlebrook
Christopher Middlebrook

The Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) will recognize Chris Middlebrook (ECE) and Josue Reynoso (COB) as co-recipients of the 2022 CTL Instructional Award for Curriculum Development and Assessment on Tuesday (Nov. 8) at 3:45 p.m. Middlebrook and Reynoso were selected for the award after being nominated via the Deans’ Teaching Showcase during the spring 2022 semester.

Please plan to join us in recognizing their accomplishments by registering for the event.

Middlebrook’s award presentation: “Curriculum Development: Creation of a Printed Circuit Board Manufacturing Laboratory Course.”

From the abstract:
Why Michigan Tech? Why go to school there? Why hire Michigan Tech engineering grads? What skills do they possess that are lacking in other engineering grads? A consistent answer to these questions is the hands-on laboratory experience students have throughout the engineering curriculum. The response is echoed with the hundreds of companies that continuously recruit Michigan Tech Engineering students. Laboratory experience increases student knowledge retention and fosters a deeper understanding through direct concept application. However, the creation of a new course with a laboratory component can often be a daunting task to faculty and staff given the amount of time and the number of resources that are often required. In this talk I will share my experience with the creation of a formal course and laboratory on Printed Circuit Manufacturing utilizing prior research equipment coupled with existing infrastructure and corporate participation and in-kind donations. The outcomes and ancillary activities associated with the course and lab, such as the building of the new Plexus Electronics Maker Space, will also be discussed.

By the Jackson Center for Teaching and Learning.

Nathir Rawashdeh Comments on Bad Weather Driving Project

Nathir A. Rawashdeh
Nathir A. Rawashdeh

Nathir Rawashdeh was quoted by Digital Engineering 24/7 in a story about artificial intelligence and simulation software helping engineers test autonomous vehicles’ driving in bad weather.

Rawashdeh is assistant professor in the Department of Applied Computing, an affiliated assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a member of the Institute of Computing and Cybersystems (ICC).

Rainmakers for Autonomous Driving

Nature presents a major obstacle when engineers test autonomous driving in bad weather. You cannot invoke a snowy, rainy or sunny day on demand; nor can you summon up a thunderstorm at your engineering team’s convenience—at least you can’t in the real world. But you can in the virtual world where you control the pixels. This has now become a growing business segment for simulation software makers.

“Sensor and computing technologies are rapidly evolving and changing in an engineering sense, which requires continuous updating of noise simulation and sensor degradation models to serve the ADAS community of engineers and researchers,” Rawashdeh says.

Read more at Digital Engineering 24/7, by Kenneth Wong.

Lucas and Whitaker Place in Computing[MTU] Showcase Poster Session

Evan Lucas
Evan Lucas
Steven Whitaker
Steven Whitaker

The Institute of Computing and Cybersystems has announced the winners of the first Computing[MTU] Showcase Poster Session. Among the winners were electrical and computer engineering graduate students Evan Lucas and Steven Whitaker for “Active learning with binary feedback on multiclass problems,” who were tied for second place with Suresh Pokharel of Computer Science.

Active learning with binary feedback on multiclass problems

An active learning approach is often used for multiclass classification problems, where predictions are made on new data and a human user is used to determine if the predictions are correct. Typical approaches may ask a human to select the correct class if the prediction is incorrect. This work attempts to use a binary feedback on the predicted classes to save time and allow maximal use of a negative prediction on a partly trained model.