College of Engineering Signatures: EE Department News

• Porod Invited to Join Nanoengineering Council • Haenggi Receives Junior Faculty Award • Massey Donates Marconi Prize to Electrical Engineering • Controlling Parkinson's with Deep Brain Stimulation • LED Traffic Light Study Identifies Significant Benefits to Communities
	Porod Invited to Join Nanoengineering Council Wolfgang Porod, the Frank M. Freimann Professor of Electrical Engineering and director of the Center for Nano Science and Technology, has been appointed to the NanoEngineering Advisory Council of the International Engineering Consortium (IEC). A newly formed board of leading technologists, scientists, academics, and industry professionals, members of this council will guide and oversee the IEC’s development of educational programs as well as the creation of infrastructure required to translate research in nanotechnology into successful commercial applications. Founded in 1944, the IEC is a nonprofit organization sponsored by universities and engineering societies. It is dedicated to the continuing education of the U.S. electronics industry and encourages close partnerships between academic institutions and industry sponsors. [back to top]
	Haenggi Receives Junior Faculty Award A faculty member since 2000, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Martin Haenggi has been selected to receive a Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). A private, nonprofit corporation consisting of 86 doctoral-granting colleges and universities, ORAU issues these awards annually to faculty members at participating institutions who are in the early stages of their careers. Haenggi is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and co-author of the book Cellular Neural Networks: Analysis, Design, and Optimization. His research interests include wireless communications, networks, and nonlinear dynamics. [back to top]
	Massey Donates Marconi Prize to Electrical Engineering James L. Massey, professor emeritus at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and adjunct professor at Lund University in Sweden, presented the Department of Electrical Engineering with the Marconi Award he received in 1999 from the Marconi International Fellowship. The Marconi Prize is awarded annually to engineers and scientists in the field of communications who “continue to push forward the frontiers of knowledge.” Massey, the valedictorian of Notre Dame’s Class of 1956, was one of the founders of Codex Corporation -- later a division of Motorola -- and of Cylink Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. He also served as Frank M. Freimann Professor of Electrical Engineering from 1962 to 1977, the first endowed professorship at the University. He is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, a member emeritus of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, an honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Science, and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Massey’s other honors include the 1988 Shannon Award of the IEEE Information Theory Society, the 1992 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, and the 1987 IEEE W.R.G. Baker Award. On campus as part of the College of Engineering’s Edison Lecture Series, Massey presented a talk entitled “What Can Cryptography Do and What Should It Be Allowed to Do?” during which he addressed the emergence of cryptography as a field for active public research, as well as the opportunities and capabilities it offers. [back to top]
	Controlling Parkinson’s with Deep Brain Stimulation Approximately 1.2 million people in the United States and Canada are affected by Parkinson’s disease. A degenerative neurological disorder, Parkinson’s attacks a section of the midbrain called the substantia nigra and is characterized by rigidity, tremors, slowness or incompleteness of movement, and postural instability -- the inability to move or change positions abruptly. Since there is no known treatment for the disease, health-care givers focus on managing its symptoms. There are four main options: transplantation -- replacing the damaged tissue; thalamotomy/pallidotomy -- surgical procedures that destroy parts of the brain in order to better control symptoms; drug therapy; and deep brain stimulation (DBS) -- the use of a pacemaker-like device to stimulate synaptic activity. Although many patients opt for DBS over the available surgical procedures, there are drawbacks, which include the size and cost of the “pacemaker.” To address these issues, Gary H. Bernstein, professor of electrical engineering, and graduate student Jayne Wu are developing an inductively-coupled deep brain stimulator that is much smaller than the current device and can be implanted under a patient’s scalp instead of under the skin of the chest. Bernstein, whose other biomedical research activities include collaborative efforts to develop an inductively-powered wireless system for monitoring blood flow, has demonstrated the basic operation of the stimulator. He and colleagues are working to miniaturize the system and the substrate to allow the attachment of the generator to a patient’s hat, shirt, or belt. "Parkinson’s was first diagnosed in 1817, and many researchers are working to find a cure, as well as control this disease,” says Bernstein. “While we’re very excited about the results of this particular project, we still have a lot of work to do.” [back to top]
	LED Traffic Light Study Identifies Significant Benefits to Communities Making the Switch from Incandescent Lights Most people fondly remember childhood games such “Red Rover,” “Simon Says,” or “Red Light-Green Light,” the stoplight game where participants start and stop depending on the command barked out by the leader. Students in the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program are looking at traffic commands in a much different light. In fact, one of the EPICS groups within the College of Engineering is working with city engineers, community leaders, and transportation companies throughout Indiana to implement the replacement of incandescent traffic lights with light-emitting diode (LED) signals. What the group has found is that, although the LED signals are initially more expensive, they use approximately 90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and last up to 10 times longer. Additionally, LED stoplights emit colored light instead of a white light filtered through a colored lens, enhancing the overall visibility of each signal. Approximately 40 percent of the traffic signals in California have been switched to LED technology, but only 10 percent of the signals nationwide use LEDs. The students are currently performing analyses of the significant energy savings provided by the LED devices and studying methods of financing a community’s initial investment in a switchover. They are also developing educational outreach tools for elementary and secondary school students that encompass LED lights and other energy-saving technologies, the role of engineering in society, and the importance of energy conservation to the environment. Editor’s Note: The EPICS program, founded in 1995 at Purdue University, is designed to partner teams of engineering undergraduates with local service agencies. EPICS students are able to experience the design process from start to finish, develop management and leadership skills, learn to work on an often multidisciplinary team, and assist community organizations in reaching their goals in a timely and economic manner. The Notre Dame program, which has partnered students with local organizations since 1997, is one of six EPICS programs in the country. [back to top]