Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (archive)

Faculty and Staff Awards

Doug Jacobson (BSCpE ’80; MSEE ’82; PhDCpE ’85), university professor and director of the Information Assurance Center, was elected a 2011 Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for contributions to information assurance education and practice. More information

In fall 2010, Vikram Dalal, Thomas M. Whitney Professor in Electrical Engineering and director of the Microelectronics Research Center, was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society for pioneering applied research in physics of thin-film photovoltaic materials and devices and for invention of industrially important photovoltaic devices. More information

Tom Baird (MEngEE ‘76), program manager of Electric Power Research Center (now retired), won the ISU Extension Annual Conference Meritorious Service Award in October.

Thomas Baird, program manager of the Electric Power Research Center, was awarded the Meritorious Service Award at the ISU Extension Annual Conference October 20-21, 2010.

Juan Jose Jaramillo, a postdoctoral research associate, received the Best Poster Award at a recent Defense Threat Reduction Agency technical review meeting in fall 2010.

Zhengdao Wang won the College of Engineering’s Faculty Early Career Research Award. Wang has made significant research contributions and developed ways to increase communication rate and reliability. His work in signal processing, signal design, detection, and performance analysis for wireless communication systems is improving the design of transmitters, receivers, and networks. In Zhengdao’s research of multiple input/multiple output communication systems, he has devised methods to increase throughput, reliability, and range without increasing signal power or bandwidth. His work already has been cited more than 2,000 times, and he has earned several best paper awards at scientific conferences. Additionally, he has written three book chapters, given four invited lectures, and shares two patents.

• Liang Dong was named a new recipient of the Harpole-Pentair Developing Faculty Award.
• Rana Biswas was promoted to adjunct professor.
• Degang Chen was promoted to full professor.
• Daji Qiao was promoted to associate professor with tenure.
• Umesh Vaidya, assistant professor, and Lei Ying, assistant professor, were each named new recipients of the Litton Industries Professorship.

• Ruth Shinar, adjunct professor; Joseph Shinar, adjunct professor; and Vikram Dalal, Thomas Whitney Professor of Electrical Engineering, received a U.S. patent (no. 7,718,130) for “Integrated thin-film sensors and methods.”
• Ayman Fayed, assistant professor, received two patents (no. 7,679,433 and 7,675,345) for work he conducted previously at Texas Instruments. The patents are titled “Circuit and method for RF power amplifier power regulation and modulation envelope tracking” and “Low-leakage level-shifters with supply detection.”
• Arun K. Somani received a U.S. patent (no. 7,671,627) titled “Superscale processor performance enhancement through reliable dynamic clock frequency tuning.”

Thomas Daniels, senior lecturer; Mani Mina, senior lecturer; Akhilesh Tyagi, associate professor; and Arun K. Somani, distinguished professor, each won the ECpE department’s Mervin S. Coover Distinguished Service Award in April 2010. The annual award, named in honor of former Department Head Mervin S. Coover, is given to faculty and staff for their extraordinary service to the department.

Liang Dong, assistant professor; Randall Geiger, Richardson Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering; Manimaran Govindarasu, associate professor; Kenneth Kruempel, associate professor emeritus; and Zhengdao Wang, associate professor, each won the ECpE department’s Warren B. Boast Undergraduate Teaching Award in April 2010. The annual award, named for former Department Head Warren B. Boast, recognizes outstanding faculty in the department.

Tom Daniels, an assistant professor, has been chosen as one of the winners of a 2010 Prometheus Award from the Technology Association of Iowa. The award is for Innovation in Education: Best Use of Innovation in Teaching.

Rana Biswas, an adjunct associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, was named a fellow of the American Physical Society for his theoretical contributions to the dynamics of semiconductors, solar materials, and photonic crystals. Before coming to Ames Laboratory in 1986, Biswas was a consultant to the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and the Exxon Research and Engineering Company, and was a postdoctoral associate at AT&T Bell Laboratories. His research interests include calculations of the properties of bulk materials and surfaces, thin-film semiconductors and electronic materials, photonic crystals, subwavelength arrays, electromagnetic simulations, sensors, and atomistic modeling of microelectronic processes. He has co-organized three Materials Research Society symposia

Assistant Research Professor Maneesha Aluru was awarded the 2009 P&S Outstanding New Professional Award for demonstrating innovative, creative, or original ways to accomplish job responsibilities; exhibiting service to Iowa State University, and more.

Mani Mina and Robert J. Weber were awarded a U.S. patent (no. 7,555,177) for All Fiber Magneto-Optic On-Off Switch for Networking Applications.