Teresa M. Donnellan

ECE alumnus Long Jiao reflects on lessons from first year as professor

Teresa Donnellan — Wed, 01 May 2024 16:34:09 +0000

ECE alumnus Long Jiao reflects on lessons from first year as professor Teresa Donnellan Wed, 05/01/2024 - 12:34

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Long Jiao, who received his doctorate in electrical and computer engineering in 2023, is finishing up his first year as a college professor. As a faculty member in the Computer and Information Science Department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Jiao has continued his research while learning the ropes of curriculum design and student engagement.

Jiao's research aims to fortify the digital world.

Long Jiao

"We're trying to develop security measures for the physical layer of wireless networks, which often gets overlooked," he said. Jiao earned both his master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from George Mason University. Spending seven years as a graduate student in Professor Kai Zeng’s lab, Jiao delved deep into the intricacies of securing the physical layer of wireless networks. His work not only addressed theoretical concerns but also ventured into practical implementations, thanks to fruitful collaborations and continuous funding support.

Jiao's transition from doctoral student to both researcher and faculty member came with new challenges, particularly in managing large classes and catering to diverse educational backgrounds. Seeking guidance, he turned to his former advisor, Zeng, who provided invaluable insights.

"Teaching is like solving a puzzle," Jiao reflected. "Sometimes, what works in your head doesn't quite click with the students."

Flexibility emerged as a cornerstone of Jiao's teaching philosophy, allowing him to adapt his methods to suit students' needs effectively. By incorporating comprehensive reviews, interactive lessons, and flexible syllabi, Jiao not only enhanced learning outcomes but also fostered meaningful connections with his students.

Jiao's early strides in academia serve as an inspiration to aspiring researchers and educators alike. His journey underscores the transformative power of perseverance, mentorship, and a relentless pursuit of knowledge.

As an alum of George Mason University, Jiao remains committed to nurturing the next generation of scholars, determined to foster academic excellence and pay it forward.

Topics

alumni

doctoral students

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

information sciences and technology

Computer Engineering

Machine Learning for Embedded Systems Graduate Certificate

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 18:26:08 +0000

Machine Learning for Embedded Systems Graduate Certificate 4429684e-ae8d-… Mon, 03/04/2024 - 13:26

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Maryam Parsa

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The Machine Learning for Embedded Systems Graduate Certificate program will equip students with the skills needed to harness the power of machine learning within computing systems, such as those in autonomous vehicles, medical devices, and smart appliances.

Maryam Parsa and team

“As machine learning models become more complex, their energy consumption and demand for computational resources grow,” said Maryam Parsa, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, who will be teaching in the program. “By focusing on embedded [computer] systems, this program contributes to the development of energy-efficient machine learning implementations, crucial for reducing the carbon footprint of digital technologies.”

In addition, Parsa noted, that the program will address the importance of data privacy and security in embedded systems.

With electives in neuromorphic computing, big data technologies, and hardware accelerators for machine learning, among other topics, this program prepares alumni of computer or electrical engineering students to tackle complex machine learning challenges. Parsa added the program would be appropriate for “embedded software developers writing code for microcontrollers” and “hardware designers who do not have a background in machine learning.”

With a diverse range of new offerings, Mason continues to lead the way in engineering education and research.

Topics

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Machine Learning

Smart Grid Technology Graduate Certificate

4429684e-ae8d-405e-870a-3b7aefe68162 (Martha Bushong) — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 18:10:20 +0000

Smart Grid Technology Graduate Certificate 4429684e-ae8d-… Mon, 03/04/2024 - 13:10

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Liling Huang

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Learn More About ECE

Associate professor Liling Huang spearheaded the creation of the Smart Grid Technology Graduate Certificate program for engineers interested in modernizing power grids with sustainability goals in mind.

Liling Huang

“The need for this program was identified through extensive market research and engaging with industry experts,” explained Huang. “We recognized a growing demand for professionals skilled in smart grid technology, driven by the imperative of modernizing power grids and meeting sustainability goals. The demand for smart grid technology is expected to continue growing, making it an exciting field for professionals to pursue.”

Ideal for professionals in the utility and energy sectors, this program offers comprehensive training in smart grid technology, addressing critical societal and economic issues such as energy sustainability and grid resilience.

Passionate about teaching power and energy courses, Huang is particularly excited about teaching ECE 518 Power System Protection and Control. She said that the contents of that course are “paramount in ensuring the reliability and stability of the energy infrastructure.

“This course incorporates hands-on experiments supported by the cutting-edge facilities in the Smart Grid Lab at Mason Square,” Huang noted. “I believe these practical experiments will provide students with invaluable insights into real-world applications and deepen their understanding of smart grid design, operation, and dynamics.”

Topics

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fuse at Mason Square

Mason faculty part of $1.7 million NTIA Wireless Innovation Fund project using AI to test O-RAN components

Teresa Donnellan — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 19:17:21 +0000

Mason faculty part of $1.7 million NTIA Wireless Innovation Fund project using AI to test O-RAN components Teresa Donnellan Tue, 12/12/2023 - 14:17

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Vijay Shah

Kai Zeng

Two College of Engineering and Computing faculty members are part of a project awarded $1.7 million by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Public Wireless Supply Chain Innovation Fund. Kai Zeng, a professor in the electrical and computer engineering department, and Vijay K. Shah, an assistant professor in the cyber security engineering department at George Mason University, are part of a team led by researchers from Michigan State University to test Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) components using artificial intelligence (AI).

Kai Zeng

Zeng, Shah, and their colleagues will use AI to guide the process of running hundreds of millions of test cases within complex O-RAN systems. “We can accelerate the testing process and make it automatic [with AI],” said Zeng.

The team’s testing includes three objectives: test for whether the O-RAN is secure, test the O-RAN's performance (i.e., its capacity for users in different app environments), and, finally, test for interoperability. When a system passes these myriad tests, Shah noted, “At least you can guarantee that, as long as a given environment is not very, very unique, it will work.” Supporting open and interoperable wireless networks is the aim of the NTIA’s Wireless Innovation Fund.

Inherently interoperable, O-RAN architecture is designed to comprise open and standardized interfaces for disaggregated RAN functions to lower the barrier for different vendors and third-party software developers to contribute to RAN innovation.

“It's not like the current monolithic, proprietary cellular networks,” Zeng explained. “If you purchase, say, Ericsson products, you can only use their hardware and software. But now, with the open RAN interfaces, different vendors can come into play that are just based on some generalized hardware; and they can build a lot of software applications or functions in this O-RAN architecture.” O-RAN architecture is standardized by the O-RAN Alliance, a consortium of cellular operators, large vendors, start-ups, and academic institutions.

Vijay K. Shah

Zeng’s 5G/NextG wireless expertise and Shah’s O-RAN research and development work in the NextG Wireless Lab@George Mason University positioned the pair perfectly to join this project. The project grew from Zeng’s working relationship with Michigan State and AT&T researchers, with whom he completed an earlier project funded jointly by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Defense’s Securely Operating Through 5G Infrastructure program. That project developed a product called WindTexter based on generative AI. Shah’s O-RAN work began late in 2020 with seed funding from the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative xG Testbed. He went on to secure a separate NSF grant, Open AI Cellular, which resulted in the development of a novel AI-driven controller to automatically control or configure O-RAN system parameters.

If the project goes well, Zeng said, the research team would like to see their hardware and software tools guide private industry in purchasing, testing, and, ultimately, adopting O-RAN.

Topics

Cybersecurity

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Department of Cyber Security Engineering

Department of Cyber Security Engineering faculty

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty

Artificial Intelligence

5G/6G Wireless Communications

WCC

Nanoelectronics expert Ethan Ahn joins department of electrical and computer engineering

Teresa Donnellan — Tue, 12 Dec 2023 18:39:33 +0000

Nanoelectronics expert Ethan Ahn joins department of electrical and computer engineering Teresa Donnellan Tue, 12/12/2023 - 13:39

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Ethan Ahn

The electronic and computer engineering department gained a new associate professor in 2023, Ethan Ahn, who is leading the Mason Nanoelectronics Lab.

Ahn joined Mason after teaching at the University of Texas San Antonio for seven years. Prior to teaching, he earned a PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 2015, did postdoctoral research at Stanford, and worked at Apple as a senior panel process engineer.

Ethan Ahn

“‘Professor has been my dream job since I was young,” said Ahn. “I was surely influenced and inspired by great professors whom I met during my college years, such as [Supriyo] Datta of Purdue University, but I also believe I like teaching from the heart.”

Ahn credits Mason’s newly built nanofabrication facility for attracting him to the school, saying it is a vital resource for his state-of-the art research. He also likes that Fairfax, Virginia, has all four seasons and is a good home for his family.

“My research group focuses on developing novel computing hardware using nanoscale materials and devices,” said Ahn. “I also collaborate extensively with researchers in other disciplines such as biomedical, energy, mechanical, and civil [engineering] to help them to address critical societal challenges that the nation faces.”

Thus far, Ahn has enjoyed seeing his students learn new material. He is gratified when students let him know how useful his lessons are as they pursue careers. “The biggest joy that I derive from my job is when I hear from students that they learned,” he said. “I don’t hear this very often, unfortunately, but sometimes students tell me that they did good on their job interview to get their dream job thanks to lessons learned in my class. Students who earned the graduate degrees under my supervision also sometimes get back to me saying that they learned from me how to solve research problems and how to work well with others in a team.”

Ahn’s goal at Mason is to graduate ten doctoral students who go on to secure faculty positions either in the United States or in their home countries. He joked, “Does it sound too ambitious?”

An amateur guitarist and music enthusiast, Ahn’s dream course to teach would be Science and Engineering Behind the Music: “I believe these two areas require the most creativity and share many similarities,” he said, asking, “Wouldn’t it be interesting to teach engineering students engineering using not math, but music, as a tool?”

In the upcoming semester, Ahn will teach an undergraduate and a graduate section of Nanoelectronics Fundamentals.

Topics

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty

nanotechnology

Parsa joins three-year, $2.4 million 3D chip creation project

Teresa Donnellan — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 21:10:09 +0000

Parsa joins three-year, $2.4 million 3D chip creation project Teresa Donnellan Fri, 11/10/2023 - 16:10

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Maryam Parsa

The hippocampus stores memories and makes connections between them, recognizing trends and helping the brain to learn and adapt to its environment. One Mason professor has joined a cross-university, interdisciplinary team to create a chip that can do the same.

Maryam Parsa, an assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering, is one of the four principal investigators on a three-year, $2.4 million project funded by the National Science Foundation to create chips that processes information like the hippocampus.

Maryam Parsa with her George Mason University research group.

The project, DEJA-VU, involves four principal investigators: Maryam Parsa from George Mason University, Akhilesh Jaiswal from the University of Wisconsin, Madison (project PI), Babak Shahbaba, and Norbert Fortin both from the University of California, Irvine. Each collaborator will contribute their special skills to create 3D Solid-State Learning Machines for Various Cognitive Use-Cases. The project will model and quantify key information processing steps in the hippocampus. These key hippocampal functions will then be embedded on to solid-state computing chips through state-of-the-art hardware design techniques. A hippocampal-aware, hardware-aware algorithmic framework will augment the chip design efforts to enable online learning and decision-making in resource constrained environments.

“The project has potential disruptive applications in the field of robotics and autonomous systems spanning industrial, consumer and defense sectors,” said Parsa. She added, “The transformative potential of the project emerges from research conducted at three different levels of abstractions of neuroscience, hardware, and algorithm.”

Parsa’s portion of the project is $550,000 for the development of the hippocampal-aware, hardware-aware learning algorithm.

Topics

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

National Science Foundation

Research

C-TASC

Engineering for good: ECE seniors design system to detect landmines

Teresa Donnellan — Thu, 08 Jun 2023 13:21:23 +0000

Engineering for good: ECE seniors design system to detect landmines Teresa Donnellan Thu, 06/08/2023 - 09:21

From preventing wildfires to detecting landmines, the humanitarian goals of senior design team projects led by Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) professor Qiliang Li have drawn acclaim in the department.

“We want the students to take care of and to care more about humanity, to consider how we can apply engineering and technology in more constructive ways [such as] saving lives,” said Li. This year, his team tackled a compelling question: “How can we clear landmines so that people can go back to their own land and are able to live in their place, their homeland?”

Li saw this year’s project as an opportunity for students in his electromagnetic theory class to apply the information from his class, learn how to build a system independently, and consider the potential positive societal impact of engineering. The team—Elise Treat, Grace Louise Gaudin, Isaac Lunsford, Mazeyar Amiri, Adrian Lange, and Sami Zahreddine—developed a synthetic aperture radar system with a low size, weight, and power system (Low SWaP SAR) to use Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to detect buried landmines.

“Their radar is basically sending an electromagnetic wave out to the to the land,” he explained. “They receive a wave from the refraction off the land—off the surface and any object underneath the soil—so by analyzing it, the students are able to detect the landmine.”

Along with teams led by ECE professors Brian Mark, and Cameron Nowzari, respectively, the project was sponsored by the Army Strategic Program for Innovation, Research, and Employment (ASPIRE), which afforded the team multiple opportunities to present their research to peers and experienced researchers. The team also presented within the ECE department at the end of the academic year, the culmination of the yearlong project.

“The senior design capstone students put a lot of effort into building a project like this; they build hardware, and they write the software to drive the hardware as a system and then gather results. Then, they explain how they designed the system and how these results are important. In other words, how these results are novel in comparison to ongoing research in the field,” Li noted. For the second year in a row, the senior design team working under Li's guidance won the best senior design award in the department.

Li hopes future senior design teams will continue the research from this year’s project. This project is itself an extension of a prior team’s work. Li’s prior team used a large power radar system, albeit with different circuit designs for long distance remote sensing, to assess changing landscape morphology of say, a mountain being affected by a wildfire.

“Last year’s team was more focusing on objects on the land, above the land, for example, the woods and vehicles,” Li explained. This year, Li encouraged his team to focus on finding object under the ground that constitute a serious humanitarian problem: landmines left behind in old battlefields. This year’s team thus needed to focus especially on the refraction of light from soil.

Li hopes future teams will build off the work done this year by using radar to study soil quality to assist farmers.

“If you're able to use radar carried by drones, you’d be able to help the farmer to detect the soil quality at a large scale. They would not need to go over there and take the soil and go to the lab and analyze the chemical composition.”

Topics

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Radar

senior capstone projects

Senior Design Project

Aspiring to smoother traffic

Teresa Donnellan — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 19:19:23 +0000

Aspiring to smoother traffic Teresa Donnellan Fri, 06/02/2023 - 15:19

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Brian Mark

There are few better feelings than hitting all green lights on your drive home. Brian Mark’s research aims to bring you that feeling more often. Ideally, technology can help you hit a “green wave” by keeping your car within an optimal speed bracket, says professor of electrical and computer engineering Brian Mark. The increasing likelihood of autonomous vehicles on the road offers a prospect even more promising than the idea of creating an app for human drivers, originally proposed in joint work of Mark and Dr. Mel Friedman, a retired physicist from the Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Through Mason's Office of Technology Transfer, Friedman and Mark recently submitted a U.S. patent application on a method for coordinating traffic lights and reducing traffic congestion.

“It probably will work even better with connected and automated vehicles,” explains Mark, “so you know the car itself is programmed to keep on the green wave. Like, if you have to turn right, you might not be on the green wave; so ... you might have to catch up to the green wave ahead of you or slow down to catch the green wave behind you.”

Mark supervised a senior design project to move toward his goal sponsored by the Army Strategic Program for Innovation, Research, and Employment (ASPIRE). Three George Mason Electrical and Computer Engineering department teams participated in ASPIRE, supervised by Qilian Li, Brian Mark, and Cameron Nowzari, respectively. As part of the program, in addition to several Zoom meetings, the seniors attended a spring meeting at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, where they presented their project progress.

Mark’s ASPIRE team constructed a model of a connected and automated vehicle. Sara Sulaiman Alaraini, Colin Graves, Corey Jones, Nitin Mandadi, Andrew Mokhtare, and Adham Obeid modified a remote-control vehicle to operate autonomously on a tarp designed like a road system, complete with centralized traffic light–controlled intersections. The team outfitted the car with sensors, a camera, and arUco tags to help it stay oriented in its environment.

"The traffic lights are connected to a centralized server, and the car is able to automatically stop at a traffic light and then go when it turns green,” said Mark.

“Through the centralized server you can indicate the destination ... It will automatically calculate the path through the street grid, and the car will just go to that destination and obey all the traffic lights as it goes.”

Mark hopes a future senior design team can further extend the project by incorporating multiple cars to simulate traffic scenarios.

“The next project would be if you have a bunch of cars. And they're all following green waves, so that they're all obeying the traffic lights. But they never really have to stop unless they have to turn. That would be the ultimate demonstration of this concept.”

Topics

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty

Autonomous Cars

robotics and autonomous systems

Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center

Electrical and Computer Engineering ramps up support for the Tech Talent Innovation Program (TTIP)

Teresa Donnellan — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 13:23:56 +0000

Electrical and Computer Engineering ramps up support for the Tech Talent Innovation Program (TTIP) Teresa Donnellan Thu, 04/06/2023 - 09:23

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Tolga Soyata

The ambitious goals of the commonwealth’s Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP) include garnering an additional 25,000 graduates in computer science, computer engineering, and software engineering over the next 20 years. To help meet the goals, George Mason University’s Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering (ECE) has a three-part strategy to increase the number of graduates from its Master of Science in Computer Engineering program.

#1: Offer qualified applicants direct admission.

First, ECE admissions will begin offering direct admission to students with relevant backgrounds who have applied to the Master of Science in Computer Science (CS) program. Associate professor Tolga Soyata, the TTIP coordinator for the ECE department, explains that some students apply to the CS master’s program whose backgrounds are more suitable for ECE than CS. He notes many applicants may not clearly understand the difference between computer science and computer engineering. There may also be confusion resulting from international applicants whose backgrounds are slightly different than standard CS or CE undergraduate degrees in the United States. For the past six months, instead of flat-out denying admission to such applicants, the CS department communicates with ECE about which applicants might deserve to be offered admission to the ECE MS degree instead of the CS MS.

“The CS department periodically sends us a list of the applicants who are not a match for them but a good match for us. We look at those applications and accept or deny. We started this process last semester, which resulted in 30+ applicants being accepted into the MS in Computer Engineering program. This semester, we have accepted close to 90 applicants and expect to reach over 100,” Soyata says.

This is a clear boon toward TTIP goals. Soyata explains, “In the end, regardless of whether the applicant goes to the computer science or computer engineering department, from a TTIP standpoint, they are going to count towards TTIP numbers, which is a CEC-level goal, rather than any individual department.”

#2: Promote BAM Program to undergraduates.

ECE’s second effort towards TTIP goals involves building awareness of ECE’s bachelor’s to accelerated master’s (BAM) program. ECE academic advisor Smriti Kansal has headed up BAM awareness efforts, and, with the recent introduction of the TTIP program, Soyata has joined her.

The BAM program allows undergraduates majoring in Computer Engineering to take up to 12 credits of graduate-level classes during their senior year. Those credits can be applied to both the Computer Engineering bachelor’s degree and the Computer Engineering master’s degree. The program requires that undergraduates have at least a 3.0 GPA as juniors. Soyata suspects the BAM program is the best way to encourage in-state enrollment in graduate programs, as undergraduates may be encouraged to tack on a graduate degree to their academic careers. After all, if a student graduates with 12 credits toward a master’s degree, he or she only needs an additional 18 credits to complete the degree; this could be accomplished in two semesters.

“A lot of our students work and pursue their BAM degree,” Soyata says, noting some of those students find employers willing to partially defray the cost of an additional two semesters of graduate school. “Companies [may] pay for part of it, and then our classes are at night, like 4:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.” Soyata adds that many ECE master’s classes are available in person—at both the Fairfax and Mason Square campuses—or as distance learning courses, which affords students additional flexibility. He encourages all ECE faculty and staff to introduce the BAM program option to undergraduate students.

#3: Establish a bridge program for non-majors interested in an ECE master’s.

Finally, Soyata is developing a bridge program to prepare undergraduate students in different technical majors for the ECE master’s program. If, for example, a student majoring in chemical engineering wants to pursue a master’s in computer engineering, that student would be able to apply to the ECE’s bridge BAM program. Such students would have a good core background but would be missing certain electrical and computer engineering knowledge. These students will be able to earn a certificate in necessary supplemental background coursework before proceeding to the ECE master’s program. Soyata describes this as a graduate certificate.

“They would have to take five courses to get that certificate,” he explains, adding, “Once they have that certificate, we will count that towards the gaps in [their] undergraduate [studies], so that now we can admit [them] to the master’s in computer engineering.” The bridge program is set to launch in fall of 2024.

Topics

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Computer Engineering

Tech Talent Investment Program (TTIP)