ECE NEWS
Alumnus Reibman Stalks 3D in the Living Room
June 26, 2009
Some day, people will routinely watch 3-D movies in their living rooms just as they now watch movies on their computer monitors.
Electrical engineer Amy Reibman (B.S. 83, M.S. 84, Ph.D. 87) has been involved in both of these technologies. During her 18 years at AT&T Labs Research, she has worked to improve the quality of video transmitted over networks, just as she is now in the early stages of making 3-D television readily available.
Ive FULL STORY
Writing in Air Is Not Pie in the Sky
June 10, 2009
Its a familiar scene in airports and train stations. Hands full with luggage, briefcase, laptop or coat and theres something you need to remember, like the level and row numbers where you parked your car in the deck. What do you do?
Instead of relying on your memory, or finding a place to put all your stuff down to find a pen and paper, wouldnt it be so convenient to simply write level 4, row H FULL STORY
Duke graduates 523 engineers in May 2009
May 10, 2009
Duke University awarded degrees to 523 undergraduate and graduate engineering students on May 10 in ceremonies beginning with a university-wide commencement celebration in Wallace Wade Stadium and ending with a Pratt School of Engineering ceremony in Duke Chapel.
Pratt Dean Tom Katsouleas Bachelor of Science in Engineering diplomas to 279 students, including 12 who completed their work in December and one last September, before a crowd of parents, relatives and friends in the Chapel.
Pratt also awarded FULL STORY
Half of Americans See Other Country as Technological Leader
March 24, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. - Half of all Americans expect another country to emerge this century as the worlds leader in addressing technological challenges that range from the economy to global warming, according to a survey of U.S. public opinion released March 3 by Duke University.
Although only 34 percent of Americans gave themselves a grade of A or B for understanding the world of engineers and what they do, 72 percent nonetheless expect the technological advancements of FULL STORY
Young Electrical Engineer Honored for Research
February 3, 2009
When Adrienne Stiff-Roberts decided during her high school career that she wanted to be a scientist, and then an engineer, she didnt know that shed end up manipulating the exotic properties of quantum mechanics to perfect devices ranging from infrared cameras to solar cells.
Its not surprising that the daughter of a father who taught mathematics would gravitate toward a career in academia in a science so dependent on numbers.
The first time I first became serious FULL STORY
Next Generation Cloaking Device Demonstrated
January 15, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. A device that can bestow invisibility to an object by cloaking it from visual light is closer to reality. After being the first to demonstrate the feasibility of such a device by constructing a prototype in 2006, a team of Duke University engineers have produced a new type of cloaking device, which they said is significantly more sophisticated and has a broad frequency bandwidth.
The latest advance was made possible by the development FULL STORY
Tiny Lasers, Big Advances
December 15, 2008
While an undergraduate in the early 1980s at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., Nan Jokerst thought lasers were so cool she should build one herself. Using plans from a Scientific American article, she did just that in the basement of the physics building. "It worked, amazingly enough," she says with a laugh, "though I nearly electrocuted myself, which wouldn't have been good for an electrical engineer."
This, her first foray into the world of laser optics FULL STORY
Harnessing Lightning and Hiding from Sound
December 15, 2008
Steve Cummer jokingly calls himself something of a Luddite because of his stubborn refusal to give up pencil and paper as his main medium for working through ideas. But in reality, that quirk is hardly enough to justify such a title, particularly when you consider that some of those ideas he fiddles with on paper are being transformed into some of the most technically advanced and futuristic materials ever devised.
Oddly enough, Cummer's involvement in materials FULL STORY
Creating the Future of Mobile Computing
December 15, 2008
Like most users, Romit Roy Choudhury enjoys the freedom, information, and options his iPhone and other devices provide, but for him these instruments serve a more important role as research tools that help him envision future innovations in mobile computing. Roy Choudhury's academic life is dedicated to making those visions reality, and it's difficult to discuss his research with him without feeling like you're getting a privileged glimpse of the future.
Roy Choudhury, who was courted FULL STORY
A New Paradigm in Electrical Sensing
December 12, 2008
When a snake is cut in half, it dies.
This illustrates how electrical devices can respond to damage. Since they are at their core closed circuits, devices will fail whenever the circuit is interrupted. However, if these devices could be more like earthworms, intriguing new possibilities arise. Unlike their reptilian counterpart, one functioning worm can become two functioning worms when cut in half.
The worm-snake illustration helps explain the recent innovation by a Duke engineering alumnus that FULL STORY
Searching for Genes, Photo Files, and Landmines -- In Haystacks
December 10, 2008
Lawrence Carin's graduate training was in electromagnetics and wave analysis-- a fitting choice for someone who remembers trying to assemble and plug in electronic contraptions as a five year old and who grew up tinkering with radios and motors. Overall, his life was fairly standard preparation for the electronic and computer engineering field, but where his work has led is anything but typical.
Carin's graduate work was focused on traditional physics in the context of improving FULL STORY
Duke Engineering Contest Connects U.S. Students with National Problems
November 10, 2008
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke Universitys Pratt School of Engineering challenges college students in the U.S. to create a video and an essay in response to this question: Which of the 14 grand challenges identified by the National Academy of Engineering would you choose to address, and how would you do it?
The National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges (http://www.engineeringchallenges.org) has identified 14 critical barriers to a sustainable way of life. They represent problems that will require FULL STORY
