UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter
Wang Wins CAREER Award
ECE Assistant Professor Xingwei Wang
recently won the most prestigious CAREER
award from National Science Foundation for
educators in their early career stage. Her
project is titled “CAREER: Novel Mechanism
for Generation and Receiving of Ultrasound
on a Single Fiber Using Nanoparticles”, a five
year project (July 2011 through June 2016) in
the amount of $400K.
The goal of Wang’s CAREER project is to create a novel
mechanism to systematically integrate an ultrasound receiving
module and a generation module using nanoparticles into a
single optical fiber so that it can steer the ultrasound to any
desired direction.
This fundamental research will strive to eliminate the
critical constraint, low efficiency, which has been restricting the
practical applications of the optical fiber ultrasound generators.
The outcome of this research will open up a new avenue for
research on integration of ultrasound generation and receiving
on a single optical fiber tip. The research will be the first
attempt to optically steer the direction of ultrasound generated
in an optical fiber which can allow fast 360-degree cross section
view and defect detection in any angle.
The broader impacts of this project include: 1) The
fundamental research will have a direct impact on the creation
of the world’s smallest duplex ultrasound probe. The probe can
be used for diagnosis of coronary artery disease which is the
No. 1 killer in USA. It can assess the stent effectiveness and
diagnose misplacement of stents which occurs in 66.5% of the 1
million coronary artery disease patients each year. Other
applications include structural health monitoring, surveillance
January 2011
January 2011
Faculty Achievements
Prasad awarded industrial
grants
Therrien publishes highprofile journal papers
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2
Salameh presents at electric
vehicle summit
3
Mil’shtein awarded
international patents
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Luo collaborates with
international partners on
research
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Student Achievements
Congratulations!
Dr. Sohan Purohit successfully
defended his dissertation
4
ECE graduate student Paula Bustos
receives special scholarship
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Got News? Please Contact ECE
Newsletter Editor Prof. Yan Luo:
978-934-2592 or Yan_Luo@uml.edu
in unmanned miniature vehicles, and navigation in autonomous intelligence robotics. 2) Educational
initiatives will broaden participation of the underrepresented groups, especially female students.
Prof. Wang’s research group has recently had a number of papers accepted by well-recognized
journals such as Journal of Biomedical Materials Research and International Journal of Clinical and
Experimental Medicine.
For more information about Prof. Wang’s research, please visit http://faculty.uml.edu/xwang/ .
UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter
January 2011
Prof. Kanti Prasad Awarded Industrial Grants
Prof. Kanti Prasad has received an award of $60,000 from Analog Devices Inc.
for the research on “Continuation of Built-in Self-Test and Built-in Calibration
BIST and BIC Procedures for MEMS Including Development of Algorithms
Pertaining to No-Shake Techniques” for the academic year 2010-2011.
Prasad has also received an award of $60,000 from Skyworks Solutions Inc.
for the research on “Continuing Performance Enhancement of Mobile
Switches Deploying Innovative Material and Electrical Characterization, Measuring Modeling and
Processing Techniques Towards pHEMTs and LNAs” for the academic year 2010-2011.
Prof. Prasad is also an active researcher of engineering education. He will give a presentation titled
“A Consummate Model of VLSI Education for Preparing the Workforce towards Meeting the
Challenges of the Hi-Tech Industry through Industrial Involvement” at ASEE’s annual conference in
Vancouver, Canada.
Prof. Joel Therrien Publishes in High Profile Journals
Professor Therrien's research group has published two articles in high profile
journals. The first, published in Physical Review B, reports on the observation of
optical chirality in graphene. Chiral materials have the effect of rotating the
polarization angle of light passing through them. Graphene's chirality comes as
a surprise both in that its structure would not suggest this will happen and in
the fact that a material that is only one atom thick can have an observable effect.
The publication has already garnered some attention; it has been selected for
the December 20, 2010 issue of Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science &
Technology.
The second article reports on the use of a piezo based biosensor for the assessment of the toxicity of single
walled carbon nanotubes. In a collaboration between ECE, Biology, Chemistry, and Work Environment, a
sensor using a quartz crystal oscillator was used to monitor the health of the cells attached to the surface
of the quartz. Lung cells specificallyknown to be sensitive to fibrous materials, such as asbestos, were
added to the sensor and subsequently exposed to various doses of nanotubes.
The sensor was found to predict the death of the cells via apotosis between 24-48 hours in advance. The
sensor is expected to have uses in environmental monitoring, testing for toxicity in nanomaterials, drug
development and customized cancer therapeutics.
"Rotation of the linear-polarization plane of transmitted and reflected light by single- and few-layer
graphene," T. Jiang, D. Emerson, K. Twarowski, D. Finkenstadt, and J. Therrien, Physical Review B 82,
235430 (2010)
"A living cell quartz crystal microbalance biosensor for continuous monitoring of cytotoxic responses of
macrophages to single-walled carbon nanotubes", Gang Wang, Abiche H. Dewilde, Jianping Zhang,
Anoop Pal, Malavika Vashist, Dhimiter Bello, Kenneth A. Marx, Susan J. Braunhut and Joel M. Therrien,
Particle and Fibre Toxicology 2011, 8:4
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UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter
September 2010
Prof. Ziyad Salameh Presents at Electric Vehicle Summit
Prof. Salameh with his electric
car at the Electric Vehicle
Summit, Lowell, MA Oct 6, 2010
Prof. Ziyad Salameh, a well-known researcher in electric vehicle and
alternative energy, was one of the invited participants and presenters at
the Electric Vehicle Summit and Workshop held at UMass Lowell on Oct
6, 2010.
Nearly 200 people attended the Electric Vehicle Summit and
Workshop, supported by the state Department of Energy Resources
(DOER) and UMass Lowell, held at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference
Center. The attendees got an opportunity to view the latest in electricvehicle technology and listen to the presentations and discussions on the
latest in alternative-fuel technology. To promote zero- and low-emission
electric-vehicle use in Massachusetts, experts from UMass Lowell,
together with automakers, manufacturers, electrical unions, municipal
officials and industry representatives envisioned the future of electric-
powered and hybrid vehicles, from compact cars to large pickups, and set plans for research and
development.
Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Ian Bowles announced at the event that the state
will take applications in the next 60 days from cities and towns interested in installing electricvehicle charging stations. Grants will be funded through a $200,000 settlement obtained by
Massachusetts and seven other states and the U.S. Department of Justice in 2007 for alleged
pollution-control equipment violations at 11 electric power plants operated by Ohio-based
American Electric Power Service Corp. and its affiliates.
Prof. Samson Mil’shtein Awarded International Patent
Prof. S. Mil’shtein was recently awarded an international patent: S.
Mil'shtein, A. Churi, P.Ersland and B. Rizzi "Bipolar Transistor with
Quantum Well Base and Quantum Well Emitter" International patent #
WO2010/117467A2 (2010). During tenure with UML Prof. S. Mil’shtein
received 4 international patents.
Due to his expertise and contribution to the research community, Prof. S.
Mil’shtein was elected to serve as a member of Organizing Committee of 7th
International Conference on Low Dimensional Structures and Devices, which will
be held in Nuevo Yukatan, Mexico on 22 -27 May, 2011.
Prof. Yan Luo Collaborates Internationally
Prof. Yan Luo has had fruitful collaboration with international partners in advanced
research. He hosted a visiting student from University of Granada, Spain who worked
in Prof. Luo’s Computer Architecture and Network Systems lab on network processor
based high performance network intrusion detection systems. Their joint work has
produced a peer-reviewed conference paper in ACM Symposium on Architecture for
Network and Communication Systems 2009, and an accepted paper in one of the wellrecognized journals: Journal of Supercomputing. Prof. Luo is also working with a
research group at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication on network
virtualization and has co-authored four papers which are currently under journal and
conference submissions.
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UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter
January 2011
Editor’s Note: We regularly present profiles of our wonderful student researchers and postdocs.
Please email Prof. Yan Luo (yan_luo@uml.edu) to introduce your ECE team members.
Recent Ph.D. graduate in Prof. Martin Margala’s Team
Dr. Sohan Purohit
Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Massachusetts Lowell (2007-2011)
Sohan Purohit received his B.E and M.S degrees in Electrical and Computer
Engineering from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (V.J.T.I), Mumbai and University
of Rochester, USA in 2006 and 2007 respectively and the PhD degree in Computer
Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in January 2011. In the summer of
2008, he worked with the Department of Electronics, Informatics and Computer Science at
the University of Calabria, Italy as a visiting doctoral researcher.
His thesis focused on the hardware-software co-design of resource efficient adaptable
architectures for high throughput processing. Besides this he has also been exploring his
other research interests including performance efficient arithmetic circuits and systems,
high speed clock-less dynamic circuit design, and low overhead radiation hardened circuits
and architectures. Recently, he has also been involved in the design of high speed digital
electronics using novel non-CMOS devices. During the term of his PhD, he has over 25
publications in peer-reviewed international journals and conference proceedings.
Sohan is a student member of the IEEE. He is also member of the IEEE Circuits and
Systems Society and IEEE Computer Society. He currently serves as a referee for
Integration, The VLSI Journal, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems and IEEE
Transactions on VLSI Systems and several IEEE/ACM conferences. In 2010 he served on the
technical program committee of the IEEE International Conference on Emerging Trends in
Electronics Technology.
Sohan wants to use the concepts he learnt during his PhD research, to pursue a career in
teaching the Computer Engineering stream where his main focus will be on the VLSI design
of high performance circuits and architectures. He also hopes to actively continue with
research in VLSI system design by supervising research projects by graduate and
undergraduate students.
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UMass Lowell ECE Newsletter
September 2010
ECE Student Paula Bustos Receives Special Scholarship
At the HENAAC Conference 2010, held on October 9 – 11 in Orlando, Fl.
ECE graduate student Paula Bustos (supervised by Prof. S. Mil’shtein)
received a special scholarship. The first HENAAC conference was held
in 1989 as a means of identifying, honoring, and documenting the
contributions of outstanding Hispanic American science, engineering,
technology and math professionals.
Here is what Paula said about her experience attending the conference:
“Honoring the past, empowering the future was the motto for this year’s
HENAAC Conference organized by the “Great Minds in STEM”
organization. The HENAAC conference focuses on identifying,
honoring and documenting the contributions of outstanding Hispanic
American in science, engineering, technology and math. They are
dedicated to highlight Hispanic Talent in the United States. This is the
third time I attend this conference and every time I come back home
very motivated. The HENAAC conference was a great opportunity to
meet professionals who have succeeded in the STEM field. I had the
opportunity to network with professionals from companies such as
Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Chevron, Ford, NASA, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and more. As
well, I was able to network with other Engineering students in the United States. I met people from
MIT, Penn State, Cal Pomona, and Florida International University. As a scholarship recipient by
Booz Allen Hamilton I’m very thankful for the opportunity to attend the HENAAC conference and
meet the Hispanic community in the STEM field. This conference does not only highlight the
Hispanic talent but also looks to inspire future generations. In my opinion I think they are doing a
pretty good job because I’m inspired and moved by the story of the people attending the conference.
After three days of extensive work, Great Minds in STEM gave away World Disney passes to the
HENAAC attendees. This was my first time in Disney World and it was unforgettable. I always
wanted to go to Magic Kingdom and meet Mickey Mouse. This dream has come true! I truly enjoyed
the HENAAC conference and I look towards to future ones.”
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