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Two NSF-funded research centers, the
Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems and the
Center for Ultrafast
Optical Science, achieved technological advances that have been
recognized in the recent National Science Foundation publication, NSF
Sensational 60.
The Center for Wireless Integrated Microsystems (WIMS) was recognized under
the category, Centers of Knowledge. "Centers have proven to be
powerful tools in solving current problems and training young researchers to
solve the problems of the future. One indicator of the importance of these
centers to the American science and engineering enterprise is the number of
breakthroughs and discoveries that have resulted from research conducted at
the ERCs [Engineering Research Centers] and STCs [Science and Technology
Centers]." [pg. 22 of the publication]
The WIMS Center recently completed its tenth and final year as an ERC, and
will become an Institute. It has impacted health care, environmental
monitoring, the national infrastructure and other areas, and it has spawned
11 startup companies.
A few of the major achievements that were supported by the center
include: an active cardiovascular stent, an intraocular pressure sensor,
cochlear implants, neural interfaces for the treatment of major diseases
such as epilepsy and Parkinson's, and an environmental and infrastructure
monitoring microsystem. See the slide show,
A Ten-Year Fantastic Voyage, for a complete summary of the center's
accomplishments.
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Hercules |
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The Center for Ultrafast Optical Science (CUOS) began as an NSF Science and
Technology Center in 1990, and in 2001 became an independent Center serving
the entire campus community. Its specialty is ultrafast lasers - and it is
home to the laser named Hercules, which holds the world record for on-target
laser intensity. Ultrafast lasers enable research in fields ranging
from optical communications, to high speed electronics and optoelectronics,
quantum structures, micromachining, as well as biomedical applications.
High speed femtosecond lasers enable eye surgery, and led to the celebrated
technique of Lasik surgery, another of the Spectacular 60 innovations
supported by NSF [see pg. 44 of the report]. The road to Lasik surgery began
in a CUOS lab, where, ironically, a graduate student made a safety error
when testing one of the ultrafast lasers. He received a very clean cut in
his eye that was discovered and no-doubt ultimately admired by the attending
physician, Dr. Ron Kurtz of the Kellogg Eye Center.
Intrigued that a laser could perform an incision much cleaner than the
existing method of a scalpel, Dr. Kurtz later formed the Ultrafast Laser
Medical Laboratory at CUOS with Prof. Gérard
Mourou, Director of CUOS at the time, and in collaboration with Dr. Paul
Lichter, chair of Ophthalmology. Tibor Juhasz, a research scientist with
CUOS, and Dr. Kurtz founded IntraLase in 1997 to pursue laser eye surgery.
Four years later, LASIK surgery was offered to the general public for vision
correction.
"We are honored to have been mentioned even in a small way in this
publication that highlights just a portion of the truly remarkable research
enabled through the support of the National Science Foundation," stated
Khalil Najafi, Schlumberger Professor of Engineering and Chair of
Electrical and Computer Engineering. "CUOS and WIMS reflect the very best in
multidisciplinary research, and I look forward to witnessing the continued
technological advances that will come out of these Centers, as well as by
all of our faculty, and the promise this holds to benefit society in
critical ways."
Posted: June 2, 2010 by
Catharine June
EECS/ECE Communications Coordinator
cmsj@umich.edu or 734-936-2965
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