ECE NEWS
DARPA-Funded Study to Detect Viral Infection Before Symptoms Appear
September 28, 2009
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense, has awarded Duke University $19.5 million for an effort led by the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy (IGSP) to design a portable, easy-to-use diagnostic device that can reveal who is infected with an upper respiratory virus before the first cough or sneeze.
DARPA is interested in such a device because it could offer military commanders in the field FULL STORY
Lightning\' s Mirror Image, Only Much Bigger
August 24, 2009
DURHAM, N.C. -- With a very lucky shot, Duke University scientists have captured a one-second image and the electrical fingerprint of a huge jolt of lightning that flowed 40 miles upward from the top of an offshore tropical storm.
These rarely seen, highly charged meteorological events are known as gigantic jets, and they flash up to the lower levels of space, or ionosphere. While they do not occur every time there is lightning, they are substantially FULL STORY
Two Young ECE Researchers Awarded
July 14, 2009
Two Duke University engineers have received the highest honor given to scientists by the U.S. government.
Adrienne Stiff-Roberts and Chris Dwyer, both assistant professors of electrical and computer engineering at Dukes Pratt School of Engineering, each received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The awards are intended recognize young investigators and support them in the early stages of their independent research careers.
The award also carries up to $1 million in research support FULL STORY
Alum Fosters Innovative Culture
July 6, 2009
When one thinks about working for the federal government, one often thinks of large conglomerates feeding off our tax dollars at the public trough.
However, there is actually a not-for-profit company that not only manages large programs for such federal agencies as the Department of Defense, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and Departments of Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security, but does so in the public interest. And the chief technology officer and vice FULL STORY
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
