NEWs

For previous news items, please go to our News Archives.

 

Dr. Duy Nguyen Receives a $262,967 Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) 

Enhance Power Grid Resilience via Artificial Intelligence
Article Preventing Wildfires Sparked by Power Lines by Susanne Clara Bard, July 31, 2023

Dr. Saeed Manshadi, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering receive a grant from the National Science Foundation to study how to improve electrical grid resilience in fire-prone areas. Dr. Manshadi's team uses artificial intelligence to calculate fire risk and help utilities decide when to shut off power.

SDSU's NewsCenter's Susanne Clara Bard had the opportunity to interview Dr. Manshadi and asked how utilities calculate fire risk when making power shutoff decisions. To read the full article, click on Preventing Wildfires Sparked by Power Lines.

Dr. Mahasweta Sarkar Recipient of the 2023 Distinguished Faculty Award

Dr. Mahasweta Sarkar, Professor of Computer Engineering in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Director of the WIreless Networks and Communication (WINC) Laboratory, received the 2023 Distinguished Faculty Award. The award is a symbol of achievement and success presented to distinguished faculty from each of SDSU's seven academic colleges, Library and Information Access, and SDSU Imperial Valley Campus. The Monty Awards honor those who have made significant contributions to San Diego State University, the San Diego community or California, nationally or internationally.

Dr. Sarkar was born and raised in India and came to the U.S. in 1996. She became interested in the world of internet and wanted to make the world a smaller place by connecting people in real-time. Her research focuses on high social impact which will bring connectivity to people, not only in health and education, but also to unconnected areas of the world using drone networking. To learn more about Dr. Sarkar, please click on The Distinguished Faculty Award 2023 - Mahasweta Sarkar.

 

Dr. Chunting “Chris” Mi Recipient of the 2023 IEEE PELS Vehicle and Transportation Systems Achievement Award

Dr. Chris Mi, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering received the 2023 IEEE PELS Vehicle and Transportation Systems Achievement Award "For contributions to the advancement of battery management systems and of electric vehicle charging".

The IEEE PELS Vehicle and Transportation Systems Achievement Award is established to recognize innovators and researchers who have made outstanding technical contributions to the advancement of power electronics in-vehicle and transportation systems.

 

Dr. Tharm Ratnarajah, fred harris Endowed Chair in Digital Signal Processing

Dr. Tharm Ratnarajah joins the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at San Diego State University (SDSU) as the fred harris Endowed Chair in Digital Signal Processing. Dr. Ratnarajah's research interests include signal processing and information-theoretic aspects of 6G cellular networks, full-duplex radio, mmWave communications, random matrix theory, big data analytics and machine learning for wireless networks, statistical and array signal processing, and physical-layer secrecy. He has published over 425 Peer-reviewed papers in these areas and holds four US patents. He was the coordinator of the European Union (EU) projects HARP (4.6M€) in the area of highly distributed MIMO and ADEL (3.7M€) in the area of licensed shared access. Dr. Ratnarajah was also the coordinator of the European Union Future and Emerging Technologies project CROWN (3.4M€) in the area of cognitive radio networks and HIATUS (3.6M€) in the area of interference alignment. Prof Ratnarajah was an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 2015-2017, and Technical co-chair of the 17th IEEE International Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications, Edinburgh, UK, 3-6, July 2016. Prof. Ratnarajah is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He has supervised 18 PhD students and 23 post-doctoral research fellows and raised $11.0+ million (USD) of research funding. Dr. Ratnarajah published a book on "In-Band Full-Duplex Radios in 6G Networks: Implementation and Applications", Foundations and Trends® in Networking, 2023 and is also the editor of the book "Spectrum Sharing: The Next Frontier in Wireless Networks", published by Wiley in April 2020 (ISBN: 978-1-119-55149-2).

 

Dr. Naim Ahmed, New ECE Assistant Professor

Dr. Naim Ahmed joins the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at San Diego State University (SDSU) as an Assistant Professor and is a scholar in the field of photonics. His research focuses on developing integrated photonics devices and systems for optical communication, high-speed computing, quantum engineering, and sensing applications. Dr. Ahmed earned his Ph.D. in ECE from the University of Delaware, where he pioneered the development of novel state-of-the-art devices by introducing a hybrid thin-film lithium niobate platform. Prior to joining SDSU, Dr. Ahmed made significant contributions to the field during his three-year tenure at leading integrated photonics companies, including Analog Photonics and Imec, USA."

 

Dr. Bo Zhang, P.E., ECE Adjunct Faculty

Dr. Bo Zhang joins SDSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an Adjunct Professor. He currently works as a staff scientist III at Idaho National Laboratory. He is the INL lead scientist on wireless R&D, and the principal investigator (PI) of multiple DOE projects. Dr. Zhang is the 2023 DOE Boost Program inventor, and a core member fulfilling U.S. President’s Executive Order 14017 in a high-impact government report “Electric Grid Supply Chain Deep Dive Assessment”. He served as session chairs/committee members for multiple IEEE conferences including ITEC, ECCE, ICPRE, and as a committee member for SAE J2954 Wireless Power Transfer and Alignment Task Force. He has authored more than 30 publications, held six patents, and served as guest editor/reviewers for multiple journal publications. He received B.E. and Ph.D. degrees both in electrical engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and had years of national lab and industry working experience now at INL and previously as team lead/senior electrical engineer at State Grid Corporation of China. His research interests include wireless charging of EV, EV charging infrastructure, electric grid supply chain, and renewable energy to grid integration. He is a U.S. licensed Professional Engineer (P.E.), and an IEEE senior member.

 

Mr. Vidya Rangaswamy, ECE Adjunct Faculty

Mr. Vidya Rangaswamy joins SDSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an Adjunct Professor. He is a former VP of Engineering at Ohmium International and former Sr. Engineering Manager of General Atomics. Mr. Rangaswamy holds an MSEE degree from the University of Minnesota, MPLS and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Dehli, India.

 

 

2023 Outstanding Faculty Award

Dr. Ashkan Ashrafi, Associate Professor of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering was awarded the 2023 Outstanding Faculty Award in recognition as the most influential university professor in the academic career of Kyle Donoghue (BSEE ’22, Summa Cum Laude).

Dr. Ashkan Ashrafi received his Ph.D. at the University of Alabama, Huntsville in 2006. He has been teaching at San Diego State University since 2007. Dr. Ashrafi’s research areas include Digital Signal Process, Brain Signal Processing, and Estimation Theory.

Dr. Junfei Xi Receives a $314,818 CCRI Grant, National Science Foundation (NSF)

Dr. Junfei Xie, Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering received a $314,818 CCRI grant from the NSF to develop an enhanced networked airborne computing platform. The grant is sponsored by the NSF and is titled "Enhanced Open Networked Airborne Computing Platform".

The project aims to develop an enhanced open networked airborne computing platform to facilitate the design, implementation, and testing of an airborne computing platform that seamlessly integrates control, computing, communication, and networking. The project will provide community support based on the flywheel model, and to attract and engage community users through organized support from four regional sites in the nation, hands-on workshops, testbed access, and technical user services.

This collaborative project brings together investigators from the University of North Texas (UNT), the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), San Diego State University (SDSU), and the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM). All four participating universities are minority-serving (UPRM) or Hispanic-serving (UTA, UNT, and SDSU) institutions with a large number of underrepresented minority students. The project will reach out to local communities through K-12 activities, and also pursue broad dissemination through organizing student design competitions, tutorials, and workshops, participating in national demonstration efforts, and engaging domain professionals. The proposed education and outreach activities will produce a profound impact on broad communities and benefit a large number of underrepresented minority students. The proposed project on enhanced open networked airborne computing platform will address the design and evaluation needs of many researchers in the CISE community and benefit a wide range of applications in the emergency, energy, environment, and transportation sectors.

Dr. Longya Xu, ECE Adjunct Faculty

National Academy of Engineering Member, Dr. Longya Xu joins SDSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an Adjunct Professor. Dr. Xu, Fellow of IEEE, is the recipient of the prestigious 2018 Nikola Tesla Award which is presented annually by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He was named a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2023.

Dr. Longya Xu received his M.S. and Ph. D. from University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1986 and 1990, respectively. From 1971 to 1978, he participated in 150kVA synchronous machine design, manufacturing and testing for mobile power station in China. From 1982 to 1984, he worked as a researcher on linear machines at the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Sinica Academia of China. After his arrival in the U. S., Dr. Xu has served as a consultant to many industrial companies, including Honeywell, Boeing, General Electric, Raytheon Company, US Wind Power, Pacific Scientific Co., Ford Motor Company, and General Motor Company for various industrial concerns. He was a faculty member at The Ohio State University where he was a professor until 2022 when he was named Professor Emeritus. Professor Longya Xu is known for his “contributions to design and control of efficient electric machines for wind power generation and electrified vehicles.” His specific research and teaching interests include dynamics and optimized design of special electrical machines and power converters for variable speed drive and generating systems, application of advanced control theory and digital signal processor for motion control and distributed power systems in super-high speed operation. He served as Director for the Center for High Performance Power Electronics at Ohio State University.

 

Go AzTechs: SDSU Team Wins First Place in National Hackathon
Article by Melinda Sevilla, March 14, 2023

A team of electrical and computer engineering students won first place with their solution to managing crowds in an emergency. Target: Petco Park.

San Diego State University students are working to solve pressing public safety issues for crowd control at concerts, sporting events, and other large-scale events. Team AzTechs, a group of SDSU electrical and computer engineering students, won the grand prize of $10,000 in a competition at the DASSH (Designing Actionable Solutions for a Secure Homeland) Student Design Challenge held February 24-26. To read the full article, click on Go AzTechs: SDSU Team Wins First Place in National Hackathon.

 

Nathan Russert ('22) Pens Children's Book on Engineering - The Great Harvest: An Engineering Story
Article by Melinda Sevilla, March 8, 2023

An electrical and computer engineering alumnus has written and published a children’s book on a group of animal engineers to introduce young readers to the world of engineering.

“The Great Harvest: An Engineering Story” is a read-aloud story for kids with the aim of transporting kids to a fictional world where animals with different skills work together to solve a big problem. “They'll watch the animal friends use mechanical, electrical, civil, and aerospace engineering to come up with brilliant solutions,” said author, Nathan Russert (‘22). To read the full article, click on Nathan Russert.

 

Dr. Chunting “Chris” Mi Receives a $959,932 Grant in Collaboration with Solid Energies, Inc.

Dr. Chris Mi, Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering received a $959,932 grant for his work in collaboration with Solid Energies, Inc. The grant is sponsored by the California Energy Commission and is titled “High Safety, Wide-Operation-Temperature, Low-Cost All-Solid-Sates Li-Ion Battery and ASSLiB-Based Energy Storage Systems”.

 

 

Octavio Martínez (BSEE '92, MBA '00) - From Internship to International Agreement
Article by Melinda Sevilla, January 17, 2023

Octavio Martínez’s (BSEE ‘92, MBA ‘00) immersion into semiconductors as a San Diego State University student led to a successful career in the field, and a recent high-profile involvement in the binational semiconductor chip agreement between the United States and Mexico.

Electrical engineering alumnus Martínez had what he called the “greatest privilege” of being selected as an honorary witness and signing the memorandum of understanding (MOU) on semiconductor cooperation between the two nations. To read the full article, click on From Internship to International Agreement.

 

Eric Johnson ('86) - What the Hell is an Economy? 
Article by Melinda Sevilla, January 4, 2023

It’s a question that Eric Johnson ‘86 wouldn’t have asked while an electrical engineering graduate student at San Diego State University. “I gave it no thought,” he said.

But throughout his career and life experiences, Johnson has learned that the economy includes goals of productivity, improving quality of life across the board, and “just the right amount of compassion.”  To read the full article, click on What the Hell is an Economy?