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MHacks Gains Focus, Maturity as MHacks X Approaches As the 10th MHacks approaches on September 22nd, we take a look back at past MHacks events and how the institution that is MHacks has evolved over time. Hack on! [Full Story] CS Alum's Four-Year Journey to Bring Music House to Michigan CS alumnus Chris Salem (BS CS 2017) has a passion for live music and has been on a quest to create a space for non-music-major student musicians on campus. Formerly the president of student group Stamp Nation, he continues to work with the group's new leaders in attempt to establish a UM Music House. [Full Story] In fight for free speech, researchers test anti-censorship tool built into the internet's core This article describes an implementation of TapDance, a method of anticensorship deployment that is built into the very core of the internet itself. By building TapDance into the servers and routers that underpin the Internet, censorship would become impractical. TapDance's development has been led by Prof. J. Alex Halderman. [Full Story] Solar Car Team Spotlight: Alan Li Computer science student Alan Li is the race strategy lead on the solar car team. He talks about his love of computer games and how those skills have transferred over to his position on the race crew. [Full Story] CRA Board Member Highlight: H. V. Jagadish HV Jagadish, Bernard A. Galler Collegiate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, has been profiled in the August issue of CRA's Computing Research News. [Full Story] CHORUS: The Crowd-Powered Conversational Assistant Prof. Walter Lasecki and his colleagues have developed a crowd-powered conversational assistant, Chorus, and deployed it to see how users and workers would interact together when mediated by the system. Chorus is capable of providing users with relevant responses instead of merely search results by recruiting workers on demand, who in turn decide what the best response is for each user sentence. [Full Story] Designing for Our Own Dr. David Chesney's students have created technology to assist Brad Ebenhoeh, a now 30-year-old sophomore in aerospace engineering, which his daily challenges. At age 19, Ebenhoeh suffered a brain hemorrhage that paralyzed the right side of his body, limited his vision, confined him to a wheelchair and forced him to leave the University for a decade. [Full Story] Precision Health Pioneer Named to MIT Technology Review Innovator List Prof. Jenna Wiens has been named one of MIT Technology Review's 35 Under 35 for her work in the development of data-driven predictive models needed to help organize, process, and transform data into actionable knowledge. Prof. Wiens' main focus is in the use of data and machine learning to advance the new field of precision health. [Full Story] Best Paper Award Recognizes Research in Electrical Engineering Student Motivation Prof. Jamie Phillips and ECE undergraduate advisor Catherine Lenaway, along with co-authors Prof. Shanna Daly (Mechanical Engineering) and Phillips former student Justin Foley, have earned the Theodore E. Batchman Best Paper Award for their work examining the motivations of students in electrical engineering. [Full Story] Social Interaction Patterns Provide Clues to Real Life Changes Researchers including Prof. Danai Koutra have explored the dynamics of individual user interactions in social networks by creating iNET, a comprehensive analytic and visualization framework that provides personalized insights into user behavior. The researchers view their work as a first step towards fully exploring the amount and type of information that can be extracted from the online social footprint of a person. [Full Story] A New Kind of Classroom: No Grades, No Failing, No Hurry This article on reports on the recent popularity of mastery-based learning in K-12 schools. Thurnau Professor Elliot Soloway is quoted in the article. He questions the approach, and contends that students learn by building on knowledge and frequently returning to it, not by working to mastery and then moving on. [Full Story] High School Students Experience High Tech and Michigan's Electrify Camps A select group of high school students spent a week in classes, labs, and even toured the Big House as they participated in the Electrify Tech Camps to learn just a few things that go on in Electrical and Computer Engineering. [Full Story] Smart Contact Lenses and Eye Implants Will Give Doctors Medical Insights Microsensors and flexible electronics in smart lenses offer a closer look at diabetes and glaucoma. ECE alum Babak Parviz (MSE PhD EE 1997, 2001) is a pioneer in the area of smart lenses. He worked director at Google and launched the Verily-Alcon smart-lens project, which worked to measure the glucose in tears. [Full Story] IGARSS Interactive Symposium Paper Award for Modeling the World's Forests Researchers in Electrical and Computer Engineering are working to find a better way to quantify forest structure around the globe. Forest structure is an important indication of the earth's carbon cycle, which impacts global climate, as well as biodiversity and other topics including land use and development. Their research, led by doctoral student Michael Benson, was presented at 2016 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS) and selected the following year to receive one of two Interactive Symposium Paper Awards. [Full Story] $7.75M for mapping circuits in the brain A new NSF Tech Hub will put tools to rapidly advance our understanding of the brain into the hands of neuroscientists. The technology exists to stimulate and map circuits in the brain, but neuroscientists have yet to tap this potential. Now, developers of these technologies are coming together to demonstrate and share them to drive a rapid advance in our understanding of the brain, funded by $7.75 million from the National Science Foundation. [Full Story] ECE Alum Steven McLaughlin Named Dean of Engineering at Georgia Tech Steven W. McLaughlin (PhD EE:S 1992), the Steve Chaddick School Chair and professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech, has accepted the role of Dean in their College of Engineering, effective Sept. 15, 2017. [Full Story] Youd Never Have to Plug in This Battery-Free Cell Phone Prof. David Blaauw offers feedback on this concept for a batteryless cellphone. Overall what they are doing is very interesting and they are pursuing a goal that everyone would love and kill for." [Full Story] U.S. elections are an easier target for Russian hackers than once thought This article on voting system security quotes Prof. J. Alex Halderman, who says of the prospect of election tampering that "the technical ability is there and we wouldn't be able to catch it. The state of technical defense is very primitive in our election system now." [Full Story] Where the Jobs Are: 2017 Hot fields in the United States include embedded engineering, control engineering, and robotics. ECE's the place to be! [Full Story] Fred Buhler Builds Better Chips for "Aweslome" Applications ECE PhD student Fred Buhler is working on more efficient chips for a broad range of applications, including machine learning, neural networks, security, and circuits testing. A member of Prof. Michael Flynns lab since he was an undergrad, Buhler's work has resulted in high-profile published papers and a new company, Aweslome, LLC. [Full Story] The Aptitude Academy: Student's Instructional YouTube Channel Tops 6 Million Views Daniel Dsouzas plan to share some knowledge ballooned into a huge following on YouTube. The ECE masters student produces short videos to help viewers succeed in career aptitude tests in India. He's been posting to his YouTube channel and website, called The Aptitude Academy, since 2013. In that time, Dsouzas lessons have gone viral and attracted 109,011 subscribers and over 6,300,000 views to date. [Full Story] ACM to Publish Leading Journal of Human-Robot Interaction; Chad Jenkins Serves as Editor-in-Chief The Journal of Human-Robot Interaction is scheduled to become an ACM publication in January 2018 and will be rebranded as the ACM Transactions on Human-Robot Interaction. Prof. Chad Jenkins will continue to serve as editor-in-chief. The journal covers the convergence of technology development and social understanding to capture the full spectrum of robotics. [Full Story] Rick Bergman, CEO of Synaptics – giving tech a sense of touch ECE alum Rick Bergman, CEO of Synaptics, is working to make tomorrow’s technology user friendly, safe, and reliable. The company hopes to lead what they call “the human interface revolution.” [Full Story]Zetian Mi Recognized a Most Highly Prolific Author in Nano Letters Zetian Mi has been recognized as one of the most highly prolific authors for Nano Letters in the past five years, and is listed on the ACS Journal Stars website. Prof. Mi's research includes semiconductor nanostructures, optoelectronic devices, LEDs and lasers, solar cells, and III-nitride electronic devices. For Jack Schultz, it's good to be back on the golf course Jack Schultz (BSE CE 2012) of Whitefish Bay, golfer and former Big Ten Freshman of the year at Michigan, quit playing because he developed the driver yips. After a break of several years he has started playing and winning again. [Full Story] Peter S. Fuss: From Michigan to Leading a Global Network Technology Company Peter S. Fuss (BSE EE 1956; MS EE 1960, NYU) was a student at Michigan when drafting classes were mandatory, and computers were made with vacuum tubes. But his solid foundation and curious nature led him to make lasting contributions first at Bell Labs, and then as a founder and president of Tellabs, International, a subsidiary of Tellabs, Inc. [Full Story] Solar Car Team goes small to win big at World Solar Challenge The University of Michigans top-ranked solar car team has unveiled the vehicle it will race in a global contest this fall, and its the smallest and most aerodynamic that any U-M team has ever built. Aptly named NovumLatin for new thingthe design, manufacturing process and solar technology behind the national champion teams fourteenth car is different than anything theyve ever done before. [Full Story] Student Hybrid Rocket Team Takes First Place at Inaugural Competition The Michigan Aeronautical Science Association (MASA) won the first ever Spaceport America Cup, an intercollegiate rocket engineering competition with over 110 teams from colleges and universities in eleven countries. The team was led in part by EE students Jacob Sigler (Chief Engineer), Nicholas Sterenberg (Avionics Lead), and Jonathan Zarger (Avionics Lead). [Full Story] New Student Exoskeleton Team Launches Prototype Student team STARX (STrength Augmenting Robotic eXoskeletons) completed its second year, focused on making practical powered exoskeletons that increase the effective strength of the user. This year, they built a new load-bearing exoskeleton called the Lexo. [Full Story] New Student Team Builds Autonomous Vehicles New student team University of Michigan Intelligent Ground Vehicle (UMIGV) has spent much of its first year organizing and fundraising, and is now building a prototype autonomous vehicle. The team is led by CE student and co-founder Adarash Mishra. [Full Story] Baja Racing Team First to Three-peat National Championship, Despite Four-Car Pileup The U-M Baja Racing team earned first place in the national competition for the third year in a row, making them the first team to ever achieve the status of 3-time consecutive national champions. Baja designs and manufactures a new off-road race vehicle every season. [Full Story] Peter and Evelyn Fuss Endowed Chair of ECE Peter and Evelyn Fuss created a Michigan ECE legacy when they endowed the Peter and Evelyn Fuss Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Believing in the power of creativity and quick action, the Fusses wanted to give the department maximum flexibility to respond to new initiatives and special needs wherever and whenever they arose. They are especially interested in expanding student diversity. [Full Story] UM::Autonomy Competes with Brand New Boat Design The UM::Autonomy team brought their latest autonomous boat, called Thurman, to participate in the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foundation Roboboat competition. This year, they managed to simplify the code running the boat, changed their design to a more stable model, and added a dedicated business team to run their promotional material. [Full Story] New grad program: Engineering Education Research New program turns a researchers eye on engineering education in the service of better teaching, learning and diversity at U-M and beyond. [Full Story]Related Topics: Engineering Education Research Finelli, Cynthia Heres exactly how Russia can hack the 2018 elections Vulnerabilities in our voting system need to be addressed swiftly, according to experts in the field, including Prof. J. Alex Halderman. [Full Story] Dennis Sylvester recognized for his distinguished talk at RESMIQ Prof. Dennis Sylvester gave a talk at the Microsystems Strategic Alliance of Quebec (ReSMIQ) annual symposium. He appeared there as a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society. He received an award for the excellence of his presentation. [Full Story] MHybrid Takes on Major Design Overhaul The Michigan Hybrid Racing team took their latest creation to the Formula Hybrid Competition at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in May, led in part by ECE undergrads Madison Warsaw, Yeabsera Kebede, and Colin Wagner. MHybrids car featured many unique components, and was a major overhaul from their previous designs. They placed 5th in their class at the competition, and earned the FCA Innovation Award and General Motors Best Engineered Propulsion award. [Full Story] Tencent, Led by Alum Martin Lau, Dominates in China. Next Challenge Is Rest of the World Martin Lau (BSE EE) is the president of Tencent, the most valuable company in all of Asia. Tencent is the creator of three of the top apps in China (Honor of Kings, WeChat, and QQ), with downloads from 2/3 of the population. As president, Lau is the company's public face and a key business strategist. He joined in 2003 after working as a banker at Goldman Sachs, and earning an MS in EE from Stanford and an MBA from Northwestern. [Full Story] Let's Encrypt Issues 100 Millionth Security Certificate The Internet is more secure thanks to Let's Encrypt, the certificate authority founded by Prof. J. Alex Halderman and his collaborators. Since launching in Jan. 2016, Let's Encrypt has issued 100 million certificates. [Full Story] Apps available for your smartphone could steal your personal information WXYZ Detroit reports on work by UM researchers that has exposed dangerous open ports in mobile platforms that can be taken advantage of by hackers. [Full Story] Lee Rutledge: Mapping the World Lee Rutledge is a master's student in computer science and engineering. Lee is working with Professor Chad Jenkins at U-M's autonomous robotics lab this fall to help AI agents map and navigate their surroundings on the fly. [Full Story] Nathan Gupta: Ambitious and Thankful Nathan Gupta is an undergraduate in data science. Nathan hopes to use his entrepreneurial and technical skills to make a difference for the people around him. [Full Story] Anna Stuhlmacher: Power to change the world Anna Stuhlmacher spends a lot of her time thinking about power, but not in a scheming, dictator sort of way. A recent graduate and NSF fellow of Boston University, Anna focuses mostly on the power to change the world. [Full Story] Prof. J. Alex Halderman Testifies in Front of Senate Intelligence Committee on Secure Elections Prof. J. Alex Halderman testified in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee as a part of the broader Russian hacking investigation. His remarks focused vulnerabilities in the US voting system and a policy agenda for securing the system against the threat of hacking. [Full Story] How to prevent Russian hackers from attacking the 2018 election In this commentary piece in the Chicago Tribune, Prof. J. Alex Halderman and Justin Talbot-Zorn make the case for a straightforward policy agenda to secure America's voting systems against the threat of hackers. [Full Story] CS Alumnae Tara Safavi Chosen for Google Women Techmakers Scholarship Tara Safavi (BS CS 17) has been selected as a recipient of the Google Women Techmakers Scholarship to continue her studies in computer science and engineering. Tara will return to Michigan this Fall to pursue her PhD in CSE. [Full Story] Rick Bergman, CEO of Synaptics - Giving Tech a Sense of Touch ECE alum Rick Bergman (BSE EE 1986), CEO of Synaptics, is working to make tomorrows technology user friendly, safe, and reliable. The company hopes to lead what they call the human interface revolution, and has over 1900 granted and pending patents for common human interface technologies like touch sensors, display drivers, and biometric sensors. Their track record includes the first touchpad to replace a computer mouse, adopted by Apple in 1994. [Full Story] Prof. Becky Peterson Honored with 2018 U-M Henry Russel Award Prof. Becky Peterson has received a University of Michigan Henry Russel Award for her extraordinary record of accomplishment in scholarly research, as well as excellent record of contributions as a teacher. This award, established in 1925, is considered the University's highest honor for faculty at the early to mid-career stages of their career. [Full Story] If Voting Machines Were Hacked, Would Anyone Know? In the article, Prof. J. Alex Halderman points out how electronic voting systems even those not connected to the Internet can be compromised. One path for hackers is to attack the computers that are used to program the ballots, which are later transferred to voting machines via memory cards. [Full Story] Mary Lou Dorf Retires; Her Focus Was On Opening Doors to Computer Science Collegiate Lecturer Dr. Mary Lou Dorf has retired after 15 years at the University of Michigan in the Computer Science and Engineering Division of the EECS Department. During her career at Michigan, Dr. Dorf worked tirelessly to open the doors of computer science to everyone. [Full Story] | ||||||
