Departmental News
Recent departmental news items will be posted here. For more news see our news archive or the news from the ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ Newscenter.
Alumna Grace Stensland ’23 Helps Earn Emmy and Golden Reel Nominations
Congratulations to , who helped earn Emmy and MPSE Golden Reel nominations for two projects this year. Grace, who minored in audio and music engineering while at Rochester, now works at Sound Rebels, where she contributed to some terrific animation projects.
Newly Funded Research
Congratulations to ECE faculty members who recently secured funding for new sponsored research projects:
Newly Funded Research - Gaurav Sharma and Irving Barron
Professor and Assistant Professor from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are receiving $50,000 from the National Science Foundation for a project titled, “.”
Neil Zhang Named 2024 IEEE Signal Processing Society Scholar
Congratulations to You (Neil) Zhang, an advised by Associate Professor , for earning an IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS) Scholarship. The recognizes students who have expressed interest and commitment to pursuing signal processing education and real-world career experiences.
Qiang Lin Appointed Dean’s Professor
, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and optics, has been appointed Dean’s Professor. These distinguished faculty appointments are assigned to individuals of outstanding research accomplishment in the School of Arts & Sciences and the Hajim School
Electrical and Computer Engineering Ranked 10th – Best College for Women in STEM
The ranked in the top 10 nationally in Washington Monthly’s a . Using data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, the publication compared the gender distribution of every STEM program at 1,027 U.S. colleges and universities, then ranked the 20 undergraduate programs with the highest and lowest percentage of recent graduates who are female in 10 popular STEM fields.
Tau Beta Phi Engineering Honor Society 2024
Rochester’s chapter of the recently initiated 30 new members. Throughout the academic year, our chapter hosts a variety of activities including community service, social events, corporate information sessions, and study sessions to help other engineering students succeed.
EDGE SCHOLARS VISIT AUSTIN
Five Hajim School students visited state-of-the-art tech facilities earlier this month as part of the . Rochester is a founding member of the new Education Group for Diversification and Growth in Engineering (EDGE) Consortium, an alliance of schools and industry/government partners that seeks to transform the semiconductor industry, and education pipelines, to meet .
Best Student Paper Award at the 2024 AES Convention
Congratulations to students Benjamin Thompson and Jenna Rutowski for winning the Best Student Paper Award at the 157th. They were recognized for their paper “A Survey of Methods for the Discretization of Phonograph Record Playback Filters,” which they authored along with recent alumnus Tre DiPassio ’23 and Associate Professor .
Congratulations to Paul Berggren’25 ECE- Receives Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society award
Paul received a Stabile Scholarship, named for Vincent A. Stabile, NY L ’40, whose gifts to the Association have permanently endowed scholarships.
ECE Participates in the BEST Program at LLE
ECE participated in the LLE’s 2024 Broad Exposure to Science and Technology (BEST) Research Program, which engages underrep-resented Rochester Central School District high school students and teachers in various aspects of STEM. Prof. Heilemann and Tre DiPassio (PhD ’23) organized two days of ECE programming. On the first day, Heilemann, DiPassio, ECE PhD students Ben Thompson and Jenna Rutowski, and Yunji Kim (AME ’25) traveled to East High School to give lectures and demonstrations on audio, acoustics, and signal processing. The next day, the BEST students headed to the River Campus to learn about cutting edge research in the AME labs/studios, the Howard lab, and the Doyley lab. The BEST students were also able to connect with the ECE REU students over lunch and learn about this valuable program. ECE’s first year of collaboration with the LLE BEST program was hugely successful. We are excited to have kicked off this community outreach and look forward to expanding our participation next summer. Marco Romo-Gonzalez, LLE engineer and deputy diversity manager, commented “Though it was not a competition, many of the students ranked your demos as the best, or as the highlight of the program! We all just really enjoyed your contributions.” Many thanks to all involved!
Congratulations to our faculty members who recently secured funding for new sponsored research projects
, an assistant professor of and , received $50,000 from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for a project titled “Emerging-Architecture-Aware Quantization for Generative AI with Hybrid Data Precision.”
Yerzhan Mustafa Awarded the 2024 IEEE Council on Superconductivity Graduate Study Fellowship
The IEEE Council on Superconductivity and its Awards Committee awards this fellowship annually to a full-time graduate student pursuing a PhD (or equivalent) degree in the area of applied superconductivity, at an accredited college or university of recognized standing worldwide. The intention of the award is to encourage students to enter and contribute to the field of applied superconductivity.
Riley Laygo Represents UR on Softball All-America Team
’27 () was honored as a National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Division III All-American, as announced by the organization on Wednesday evening. A Second Team All-American, Riley becomes the eighth All-America honoree in program history and is just the second first-year to earn the distinction.
Streamlined microcomb design provides control with the flip of a switch
Rochester researchers led by Qiang Lin, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and at the Institute of Optics, that allows users to control the optical frequency comb simply by switching on a power source.
The Class of 2024 Celebrate with an Ice Cream Social
On Friday, May 10, 2024, seniors and graduating master’s students celebrated with their fellow graduates and faculty at our Ice Cream Social. Lugia’s Ice Cream on Wheels provided the delicious treat.
Eby Friedman Receives Lifetime Achievement Award
, Distinguished Professor of , received the Hajim School’s top annual faculty award for his tireless efforts and groundbreaking scholarly achievements. The Hajim School presented Eby with the 2024 , which recognizes faculty for outstanding achievements in research, teaching, and leadership over the course of their career.
First Generation Students Move on to Exciting Next Chapters
The profiled Hajim School graduates who are off to exciting next steps.
Rocky Award - Eli and Mildred Sokol Prize
Congratulations to ECE student, Jacob Greenberg ’26!
Rocky Award - Award for Campus Contributions – Junior & Senior
Congratulations to ECE student, Madison King ’25! Madison received the Award for Campus Contributions – Junior & Senior.
Grace Stensland '23 AME, Interviewed for Rochester Review
The Rochester Review catches up with AME alumus, Grace Stensland '23. See the article below about what she is doing now in Los Angeles.
Mujdat Cetin and Mark Bocko – Seed Funding for New Transdisciplinary Centers and Institutes
A key pillar of the strategic plan is that the University aims to launch five new transdisciplinary centers or institutes aimed at supporting scholarship in areas that will bring the University even more distinction and reputation. The University launched a planning funding competition in which teams of scholars from multiple units across the institution proposed ideas for new centers and institutes.
Thomas Howard – UR Robotics Club Faculty Advisor
UR Lunabotics is a brand-new competitive team with the goal of competing and succeeding in the NASA Lunabotics competition. Lunabotics is an international, university-based competition being run and sponsored by NASA. Teams typically develop one large robot (1.0m x 0.75m x 0.75m). This robot will compete by performing various autonomous and controlled tasks to gather points on a simulated lunar surface. Our goal is to compete this year in-person at NASA Kennedy Space Center using a fully autonomous robot. Lunabotics is open to all members regardless of skill level.
Newly Funded Research for Qiang Lin
Congratulations to Professor Qiang Lin from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and for receiving $500,000 to collaborate with Winston-Salem State University and Clemson University on a project funded by the National Science Foundation. The project is titled, “Expanding Quantum Research and Education at Winston-Salem State University with Research on Hybrid Microwave-Optical Quantum Devices.”
Congratulations Christiano Tapparello who recently secured funding for new sponsored research projects.
, an associate professor of research in the , received $113,879 from the National Institutes of Health for a project led by his collaborators at Stanford University titled, “A facial expression-based personalization engine (FPE) for monitoring and modulating real-time effective engagement in cognitive training in older adults at risk for AD-ADRD.”
Congratulations to ECE PhD student, Frank Cwitkowitz, a Graduate Research Symposium Winner!
The Hajim School’s graduate students did a terrific job showcasing their scientific findings last week at the third annual . The event, hosted by the office of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs, featured a poster session with $300 awards for the best presentations in four disciplines.
ECE UG Velma Ayona - EDGE Scholar
Two Hajim School students recently visited Micron Technology’s state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication facility in Boise, Idaho, last week as part of the new . On February 26, Velma Ayona ’24 () and Atlas Kiewel ’27 (optics) , the only one for DRAM semiconductor memory chips in North America.
Five from the Hive: Omar Zakaria Khalil
The ÌìÃÀÊÓƵ Instagram account’s Five from the Hive series provides a behind-the-scenes peek into the lives and experiences of our students through five photos from their camera roll. They recently featured Hajim School student Omar Zakaria Khalil ’25 ().
Marvin Doyley Receives the Advocacy and Action Award
, the Wilson Professor of Electronic Imaging and chair of the , received the Advocacy and Action Award during last week’s ceremony.