Systems Laboratory
Recent Technology Transfers in Systems Research
Professor David J. Anderson, Director
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health
Professors David Anderson and Gregory Wakefield and their students are working on auditory prostheses which have restored hearing to thousands of individuals. The system is very complex and without the technology, signal processing and Biomedical people working together, the implantable neural stimulator for the ear would not work.
The technology being developed by the Center will eventually be applied to other sensory and motor systems such as vision and the spinal cord. Both huge sources of disability worldwide. One former student is currently working at The Johns Hopkins University on the vision project, and at Michigan we are starting work on spinal cord stimulation.
Professor Jeffrey Fessler and his students
This group has combined statistical analysis (EECS 401/501/563/...) with signal processing concepts (EECS 451/516/556/...) to develop algorithms for reconstructing tomographic (cross sectional) images of the human heart. One of these methods is now used routinely at the University of Michigan Hospital for cardiac patients (patients with clogged arteries). This work is under consideration for licensing by system manufactures.
Professors Fessler and Hero, and their students
The constrained Cramer-Rao bound developed by Professors Hero and Fessler was used to establish the feasibility of a new method of medical image reconstruction that resulted in funding of a major new research program at the University of Michigan under the funding of NIH.
Professor James Freudenberg and his students
Feedback control algorithms developed by Professor Freudenberg's students are being implemented in semiconductor fabs to produce faster, smaller IC chips.
Professor Jessy Grizzle and his students
The control of advanced fuel injection systems includes important contributions from Professor Grizzle and his students.
Professor Alfred Hero and his students
A novel method for estimating entropy and mutual information has been introduced using minimal spanning trees. This algorithm has been applied to image registration in Magnetic Resonance Imaging and to synthetic aperture radar.
Professors Lafortune and Teneketzis, and their students
The methodology developed for the diagnosis of faults in dynamic systems is currently being tested by the Systems Diagnostics group in the Wilson Center for Research and Technology at Xerox for their new generation of color copiers and printers. In this regard, Xerox has acquired a license from the University of Michigan for the software package developed by Professors Lafortune and Teneketzis for the analysis of discrete event systems. This software has also been licensed by Johnson Controls and Rockwell for evaluation studies.
Professor Semyon Meerkov and his students
The method of "Just Right" operation for production systems is developed and applied to more than a dozen production lines at Ford, GM and Chrysler. In each case a substantial improvement in production rates is obtained.
Professor David Neuhoff and his students
This group does research in the theory and practice of data compression algorithms. Such algorithms are used to "compress" data to as few bits as possible, while maintaining good reconstructability. For example, data compression algorithms are commonly used in high speed modems (e.g. V.34), telephony (digital cellular), digital audio (minidiscs, compact cassettes), digital imagery (cameras, and pictures over the web), and digital video (direct TV, HDTV, DVD). A rate-control algorithm based on methodology developed here is currently being incorporated into new video coding standards.
Professor Wayne Stark and his students
Error control coding algorithms for wireless communication systems for packet radio networks include contributions from Professor Stark and his students.
Professor Kim Winick and his students
Integrated optical devices, in glasses and crystals, have been designed and fabricated for use in the optical fiber communications systems. These devices include both miniature lasers and filters.