NC State ECE
NC State ECE



Contents

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Welcome

Students

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Department

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Alumni

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Research

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Awards

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Spotlight

Welcome to the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department’s digital magazine, showcasing the accomplishments and journeys of our students, faculty, and staff.

Table of Contents

Department Head’s Note

 

Daniel StancilIt is my pleasure to introduce this new digital format for our annual Spotlight publication. This enables us to include more news and events and to enhance and elaborate on the stories from our ECE community with immersive content.

This past year has presented many unusual challenges for the world and our country. The COVID-19 pandemic has uprooted our lives, and in the process laid bare increasing racial and political conflicts. Alongside the societal impacts, the pandemic forced sudden and extensive changes in the operation of the university, on-going research projects, and the delivery of education. Though these challenges continue, I am proud and encouraged by the way our students, staff, faculty, and alumni have stepped up to this challenge.

I believe the starting point for addressing the increasing conflict that we see is to continue to encourage each other to live up to our stated values: no one should be made to feel uncomfortable, unwelcome, or unsafe because of their opinions, beliefs, ethnic or racial background, gender, sexual orientation, or sexual identity. Our state and country are deeply divided, and I believe our best strategy for continuing to grow our economy and improve opportunity and quality of life is for us to listen to and respect each other, and to work together toward common goals.

As our society charges forward into this new decade, the challenges that we face are not solely of a societal identity but supercharged by a world of change and opportunity. As engineers, we have the obligation and privilege to address these challenges head-on, finding solutions to the problems of today, and preparing for the problems of tomorrow.  At NC State, continuing to strengthen and promote world-class engineering education while harnessing groundbreaking research is of the utmost importance, and I’m confident in our accomplishments this past year.

This issue of Spotlight features some of the exciting activities, achievements, and recognitions of our NC State ECE community. These stories include tales from our rapid move to online operation in the spring of 2020; a senior design team working with a non-profit in Uganda to design a security system for rural community lighting; profiles of outstanding new faculty members; research news such as our work with Delta Airlines and Anthem on quantum computing; faculty awards including the recognition of Mo-Yuen Chow as the recipient of the 2020 IEEE Industrial Electronics Society Achievement Award; and alumni accomplishments such as astronaut Christina Koch’s records for the longest spaceflight for a woman and the first all-female spacewalk. We also pay our respects to two valued members of our ECE community that we lost during this past year: Tony Mitchell, Assistant Dean Emeritus; and Bob Kolbas, Professor Emeritus, former department head, and namesake for the Kolbas ECE MakerSpace. They touched countless lives and will be sincerely missed.

I hope you will enjoy these stories, and that they will help you feel a part of our extended ECE Wolfpack family.

Dr. Daniel D. Stancil
Department Head, ECE

In this Spotlight

 

Research

A Smarter Dog Collar

Wearable data collection systems being developed in the College are empowering guide dog trainers and making a costly, time-consuming process more efficient

Students
The Insider on Undergraduate Research

The Insider on Undergraduate Research

Hear from Britanya Wright, one of ECE’s seniors and Goodnight Scholars as she recounts her journey or curiosity beyond the classroom while undertaking undergrad research in the NNF.

Seeking to Change the Stigma in STEM

As a sophomore in ECE, Lauren White knows how difficult it can be adjusting to college. As a female member of the LGBTQ community from out of town, the task of fitting in seemed extra daunting…

Senior Design Teams Present

With Design Day on the horizon, one team got to present its work-in-progress to its sponsor at the Fall Industry Meeting of CAPER in Charlotte.

Department
Teaching ECE from the Living Room

Teaching ECE from the Living Room

As classes shift entirely online for the remainder of the semester, ECE faculty shift into high gear to leverage online tools and adapt (sometimes even household items) to dramatically different teaching needs.

Welcoming New Faculty

ECE is proud to announce the addition of four new members of our faculty to bolster the stellar research and teaching going on in the department—welcome to the Pack!

Alumni
Engineering a More Inclusive Campus

Engineering a More Inclusive Campus

Timothy Humphrey ’96 recently created two endowments with one extraordinary goal: promoting opportunities to create a more diverse, inclusive campus.

Christina Koch Completes 328-Day Mission on Space Station

At 4:12 a.m. EST on February 6, 2020, in a remote corner of Kazakhstan, Christina Koch completed her 328-day mission on the International Space Station and set a record for the longest single spaceflight in history by a woman. Koch, a three-time graduate of NC State...

Awards

Aysu receives NSF CAREER Award

Congratulations to Dr. Aysu for receiving an NSF Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) for his ongoing cryptographic and deep learning research!

Chow Receives 2020 IEEE IES Achievement Award

Congratulations to Dr. Mo-Yuen Chow, 2020 recipient of the IEEE IES Mittelmann Achievement Award, recognizing his substantial technical contributions and leadership with industrial electronics technologies

Aysu and Ozturk Recipients of ECE Faculty Awards

ECE is proud to announce that Aydin Aysu and Mehmet Ozturk are the 2020 recipients of the Departmental Faculty Awards — the Bennet Faculty Fellow Award and the William F. Lane Outstanding Teaching Award.

Yaoyao Jia Wins IEEE Best Paper Award

Congratulations to Yaoyao Jia, winner of Best Paper award from IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Circuits and Systems for her work on mm-sized wireless implantable opto-electro stimulation devices.

Where We Are

 

Rankings according to ASEE

#8

University in the U.S. for
Electrical Engineering
According to ShanghaiRanking’s Global Ranking 2020

#6

Best Value among Public Universities Nationally
According to U.S. News & World Report

21

National Science Foundation CAREER Award Recipients

63

Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty

About Spotlight

Once a year, the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering issues forth a magazine detailing the major news and events concerning the department that has occurred in the previous year.

Starting in 2020, we have taken that magazine into a digital experience, to better showcase the wide range of activities in the department, and more effectively give voices to those involved.