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From KU News -- 02-14-2012
By Michelle Ward
Erik Perrins, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science, has accepted an invitation to serve as an area editor for the IEEE Transactions on Communications. His duties include assigning papers to the 13 editors within the modulation and signal design area, monitoring their performance and assisting the editor-in-chief.
"Erik is an internationally renowned researcher in the field of modulation and signal design for telecommunication systems. He has served as an editor for several years and has done an excellent job in this capacity," said Robert Schober, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia, who nominated Perrins for the position. "This made him a natural choice when the position of area editor became vacant."
Perrins' research expertise is in wireless communications. He recently received a Department of Defense research grant to help develop new communications architectures for flight test telemetry --measuring at a distance. By simultaneously allowing multiple tests to take place over hundreds of square miles, the integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry program is a significant upgrade in aircraft testing. He conducts research at KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center.
He also helped build a communication system able to transmit large amounts of scientific and operational data while adhering to severe size, weight and power constraints needed for future space missions. Perrins' team developed miniaturized hardware for the NASA project.
Prior to area editor, Perrins served for four years as an editor for the journal.
ITTC researchers have developed a new form of high-speed covert communication that leverages existing radar emissions.
EECS Associate Professor Shannon Blunt collaborated with EECS Associate Professor Erik Perrins and graduate students Justin Metcalf and Casey Biggs on the development of an intra-pulse radar-embedded communication approach. The specially designed covert signals achieve the right trade-off between communication performance and interception avoidance. For example, the system may allow soldiers behind enemy lines to send secure messages by hiding signals among the echoes generated by a nearby high-powered radar. Intended receivers would have sufficient prior knowledge to recover the hidden signal, while eavesdroppers would be unaware of the signal's existence.
Such technology traditionally employs hundreds to thousands of radar pulses to insert covert signals. However, by inserting information into the echoes from each individual radar pulse, the ITTC approach has the potential to increase the data rate by orders of magnitude.
The work, funded by a U.S. Air Force Young Investigator Award that Dr. Blunt received in 2007, culminated in the December publication of "Performance Characteristics and Metrics for Intra-Pulse Radar-Embedded Communication" in the prestigious IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC).
From KU News Service -- 01-12-2012
By Brendan Lynch
Researchers from the University of Kansas are building a smaller, cheaper and more flexible fiber-laser microscope that could revolutionize biomedical and clinical work.
Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy already is a proven and powerful technology for peering into cells to observe lipids, proteins and DNA. But the lasers involved in CARS microscopy are complex and pricey, available only to top research institutions with deep pockets.
The KU project, headed by Carey Johnson, professor of chemistry, aims to simplify the tool and make using it faster and more economical. The goal is to bring the technology down in cost, and within reach of medical clinics and biomedical researchers.
"CARS has been around for a long time, but it's been developed based on $300,000 laser systems that take up large optical tables," Johnson said. "It's not a very usable method of microscopy for everyday clinical use-- it requires a very specialized lab and a system that's not portable."
By contrast, the simplified CARS system that Johnson is developing with ITTC investigator Rongqing Hui, a fiber-optic expert and KU professor of electrical engineering and computer science, is based upon a single fiber laser and could fit inside a shoebox.
"This laser source would be much smaller, and much less expensive than the kinds of laser sources being used now for this kind of laser microscopy," said Johnson. "We hope to make it much more accessible."
Because every molecule vibrates at a unique frequency, CARS can identify unique molecules by reading those frequencies with laser beams.
"We pass two different wavelengths of light straight through the sample, and the CARS process creates a third wavelength, where the strength of that signal depends on the vibrations of the molecule," Johnson said."If the difference between frequencies of the two beams that we send into the sample match its vibrational frequency, that amplifies the signal, and we look for that amplification in the output beam."
The collaboration could usher in low-cost CARS microscopy and put the powerful tool in the hands of more clinicians and researchers.
"It's important because we can look at the cells as they are," said Johnson. "We don't have to treat them with a dye, or a stain or some kind of label that would make them fluoresce. Currently, one has to go through extra steps to have cells genetically make something that fluoresces. This method avoids that."
Funded by $156,000 from the National Institutes of Health, the instrument-making project will take three years and should result in a prototype fiber-optic laser microscope by 2014.
Nearly 200 of the world's leading experts on software engineering will gather at the University of Kansas next month to exchange research on the development of more efficient, reliable and secure software systems during the 26th Annual IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering.
Perry Alexander, director of KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC) and general chair of the conference, said local and regional industry practitioners would be able to attend tutorials on advanced software engineering techniques, participate in specialized workshops, and see tool demonstrations and paper presentations at the main conference. Those interested in participating should go to http://www.ase-conference.org for more information.
The conference, hosted by ITTC and KU Continuing Education, will be Nov. 6-11 at The Oread. It is sponsored by two professional societies: the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
According to Alexander, there will be significant attention given to disseminating cutting-edge research in techniques for automating software synthesis, testing, analysis and development processes. The conference will present information through technical papers, special sessions, tutorials, workshops and a student poster session. Anyone interested in software engineering will find an activity of interest at the conference, Alexander said.
"It is a thrill to have so many of my research colleagues in Lawrence for the conference. The attendees are among the top minds in the world in software engineering, and I hope local industry will take advantage of the opportunity to interact with them," said Alexander, a professor in electrical engineering and computer science.
Keynote presentations will take place Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Ian Witten, professor of computer science at the University of Waikato in New Zealand, will present "Wikipedia and How to Use It for Semantic Document Representation," explaining how to enhance information retrieval and connection within the rich resource. The following morning Matthew Dwyer, a professor of computer science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, will deliver "Unifying Testing and Analysis through Behavioral Coverage" that will offer techniques and tools to better assess the correctness of software systems.
Participants from KU include EECS Professor Arvin Agah, who will co-chair the Tutorials Track, and Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center Director Leonard (Kris) Krishtalka, a professor of vertebrate paleobiology, who will deliver a keynote address.
For more information, visit the conference site online.
Technology being developed at the University of Kansas will make it easier and cheaper to build highly dependable, secure software, potentially saving billions of dollars annually.
Andy Gill, an assistant professor in electrical engineering and computer science (EECS), recently received a $500,000 National Science Foundation grant to streamline tools for the development of high assurance computer systems. The innovative support tools will provide greater transparency and scrutiny when building critical components for large complex systems, dramatically reducing the all-too-common bugs and glitches that occur in current software.
When programmers build software, they first must determine how it will be used and then how it will function. They should then evaluate the software to ensure the description and function match, but this step is cumbersome and expensive. All too often, crude testing methods are used instead, inadvertently neglecting to test critical corner cases that later result in bugs in real-world deployment. A National Institute of Standards and Technology study found that software defects cost the economy $60 billion annually and account for 80 percent of software development costs.
Gill is building the Haskell Equational Reasoning Model-to-Implementation Tunnel (HERMIT) to improve software correctness. HERMIT mathematically, or formally, analyzes each step of development, providing rigorous connections between system requirements and the programming details of a real application. While system requirements and programs are typically written in two different computer languages and often evaluated in a third, HERMIT provides a common foundation that generates evidence that the description and action match. These continuous checks and balances make it much harder for errors to be introduced, and HERMIT's precise documentation style allows any pesky bugs to be caught early in the process.
"When we are talking about building large systems with millions of lines of code, finding errors can be very difficult. Unreliable software hurts companies' reputations and costs them customers," said Gill, who conducts his research at KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC). "HERMIT uses new ideas from software engineering and mathematics to make the evaluation of high-assurance software development more manageable."
As well as helping with software development, Gill hopes HERMIT can be customized for developing hardware solutions. Gill gave an invited talk at the NSA-sponsored High Confidence Software and Systems conference in Maryland last year about the precursor to HERMIT that generated a hardware-based signal decoder. Collaborating with EECS Associate Professor Erik Perrins on the implementation of a system that helps correct naturally occurring errors in noisy transmissions, Gill applied the HERMIT rules by hand, leading to an efficient design and a more reliable decoding system.
Before joining the KU faculty, Gill was involved in the successful commercialization of technology developed in academia. Gill was a principal project scientist for the PacSoft research group in the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology. Together with colleagues from PacSoft and other academic institutions, Gill commercialized a software engineering method that led to a software engineering firm with 40 employees. Gill hopes to repeat this success with HERMIT.
From Kansas City Star -- 08-30-2011
By Scott Canon
Google wants your business to go online.
Whether your mom-and-pop caters to Millennials or to Mom and Pop, the search engine company argues that you're either on the Web or you're out of it.
So today and Thursday the company is running seminars in Kansas City and giving away free websites - hosted by Intuit Inc. for a year at no cost - to the more than 1,000 mostly very small businesses expected to attend its welcome-to-the-Internet clinic.
The company says that 97 percent of Americans look online for the services and stuff they buy. Yet a Google/Ipsos survey found nearly two in three U.S. businesses have no home on the Internet.
"They're digitally invisible," said Scott Levitan, Google's director of small-business engagement. "They won't show up on the map, and they will have no chance of getting that call."
He says Google's research shows that small companies don't bother with setting up websites because they think it's too hard, too costly and too time-consuming.
So Google is attacking that perception by telling businesses they probably can have decent-looking, if minimalist (three pages), websites up and running after an hour at the clinic. After the free year is over, keeping the websites alive will cost about $7 a month.
Google has similar events scheduled in September in Iowa. It already put on sessions in Vermont and Texas this summer, drawing mostly outfits with fewer than 10 employees. Those entrepreneurs, Levitan said, were generally surprised at the ease of planting their flags on the Internet.
The company has a special interest in moving this market's businesses onto the Web because it has promised to string fiber-optic lines to virtually every home and business in Kansas City and Kansas City, Kan., and deliver Internet speeds 10 to 100 times faster than are available to most Americans. Details about the project remain sketchy, but Google has said it will fire up the service for some customers in early 2012.
That super-fast Internet and this week's "Kansas City Get Your Business Online" seminars feed into Google's motivation to move more commerce to the Internet. After all, that's where it makes its billions.
"Ultimately, Google wants your experience with the Internet to be with one of their offerings," said Josh Olson, a technology sector analyst at Edward Jones & Co. "The more they're able to control that, the more they're able to enhance the relevance of their ad model."
Google insists it's not using the sessions to promote its online business products--the Google Apps line of Internet-based programs that range from email to word processing to electronic spreadsheets. Rather, Levitan said Google benefits from more businesses online driving more consumers online. That in turn provides more chances to expose people to Google's ads. The more businesses listed on Google Places, for instance, the more likely consumers will use the device.
Still, the sessions will include how-to programs on Google's AdWords program that produces advertising based on the words used in an Internet search. And small businesses might be especially attracted to so-called cloud services offered by Google. They allow the smallest of businesses--those with fewer than 10 employees--to get computer programs for free and larger firms to essentially rent rather than buy software applications.
"It's like outsourcing anything. You're looking to gain efficiency," said Victor Frost, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Kansas.
Such cloud applications could prove particularly useful for small businesses that can't afford information technology staff, he said, but they might also make it more difficult to shift that strategy when a company grows.
For small businesses such as Dumit Rug Cleaners in Kansas City's Waldo area, a free website could be just the thing.
Todd Dumit and Paula Tarwater run the business with their father, Dave Dumit. Dave Dumit's father, Henry Dumit, started the business in 1929. Of course, in the beginning there was no Internet. But in recent years Tarwater has felt negligent for not using a website to promote the company's specialty of cleaning area rugs.
"It was kind of intimidating," she said.
But after a Google representative visited her shop and signed her up to attend today's seminar, Tarwater said, "I'm kind of excited."
That, said Intuit product manager Megan Bhattacharyya, offers a chance to introduce small businesses to her company's online products.
"People think getting online is this really, really scary process," she said. "It doesn't have to be."
Getting online has been critical for Janay Andrews, who makes wedding dresses from sustainable materials such as organic cotton and silk hemp. Andrews now sells dresses to people around the world. She's the subject of a Google video about the powers of a website for small businesses.
ITTC investigator Arvin Agah received a surprise visit from KU Provost Jeffrey Vitter and other dignitaries who presented him with a Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence and a $7,500 check during his Mobile Robotics course on Tuesday.
ITTC graduate student Marianne Jantz, who had Agah for Software Engineering (EECS 448) as an undergraduate, is now taking his Mobile Robotics course.
"Dr. Agah's classes are always extremely enjoyable," Jantz said. "He has the ability to impart his knowledge and expertise, while keeping his students both interested and smiling."
Andrea Valdivia had Agah for Software Engineering in 2008. Students worked in small teams to develop a Nintendo DS game, which she said was a great conversation starter during internship interviews. Valdivia said the career-oriented course showcased Agah's strong industry background and his passion for software development.
"Professor Agah's Software Engineering class was one of my favorites at KU! It was an extremely hands-on course that gave students a flavor of what it is like to develop solutions for real-world scenarios," said Valdivia who graduated in May and is working at the Goldman Sachs world headquarters in New York."His enthusiastic teaching has made a lasting impression on me and certainly countless others."
Mark Calnon has returned to KU this fall to begin his doctorate work under the direction of Agah. As an EECS graduate student in 2008, Calnon and other students wanted to participate in the Space Robotics Challenge. Agah created a special topics course for the students and helped them write grant proposals to fund the project and present it at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation.
"Professor Agah has a true desire to see his students succeed. Whether assisting students with their research or encouraging students to participate in educational outreach, Professor Agah is always willing to spend as much time and effort as necessary to provide his students with opportunities to grow both academically and personally," Calnon said.
The Kemper fellowships recognize 10 outstanding teachers and advisers at KU as determined by a seven-member selection committee. Now in their 16th year, the awards are supported by an annual gift of from the William T. Kemper Foundation (Commerce Bank, trustee) and matching funds from KU Endowment. Agah is the eighth EECS professor to receive a Kemper award.
Agah joined the EECS faculty in 1997. He spearheaded the new Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Computing program and served as associate chair for graduate studies from 2005-2009. He conducts artificial intelligence and robotics research at ITTC.
Increasing the security and maintainability of computer systems has earned a University of Kansas graduate student in computer science a prestigious Department of Defense (DoD) scholarship.
Evan Austin, of Shawnee, will receive a $38,000 annual stipend, full tuition and fees, book allowance and health insurance through the Science, Mathematics And Research for Transformation (SMART) Scholarship for Service Program. Austin, who will graduate with a master's degree in computer science in August, will begin his doctorate studies in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) this fall.
"Evan has worked very hard and we're all very proud of him," said Stuart Bell, dean of engineering. "The home-grown talent at the KU School of Engineering continues to excel at the highest levels of scholarship and research. This award is a great honor and the work he's completing at KU will play an important role in the security of the information technology we all rely on."
SMART recipients receive paid summer internships and postgraduate employment within the DoD. The program, which aims to bring highly trained civilian scientists and engineers to Defense facilities, requires a year of employment in return for each year of scholarship.
"Beyond the generous financial benefits attached to the award, the SMART program provides years of invaluable experience at a DoD research facility," Austin said. "When I look at the incredible new professors EECS has gained over the last few years, I notice many are finding immediate success based on the contacts and confidence that they developed working at government research labs. I'm hoping that this opportunity will provide me with a similar foundation that I can build upon for success."
Current verification software does not provide sufficient automatic processing, creating a slow and cumbersome inspection process. Austin is developing formal reasoning tools that will allow researchers to build models that will evaluate the security, reliability, maintainability and other importance facets of their hardware/software design. His tools are aimed at expediting the generation of trustworthy large-scale systems, such as smart grids and telecommunication networks.
Austin conducts research at KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC) under the direction of Perry Alexander, Sharp Professor of EECS and ITTC Director.
"Evan is an exceptionally talented researcher and a wonderful member of my laboratory," Alexander said. "The SMART fellowship suits him quite well, and I believe the experience he will gain working with the DoD will benefit him greatly when he starts his academic career. This fellowship is great for Evan and great for ITTC and KU."
Austin earned an undergraduate degree with honors in computer science from KU in 2008. In 2010, he won a Paul F. Huebner Memorial Award for outstanding graduate teaching. He was the graduate teaching assistant for the C++ programming course (EECS 138).
This is the third EECS/ITTC student to receive a SMART fellowship since its creation in 2005. Alumni Jamie Jenshak and Mike Wasikowski received SMART scholarships in 2006 and 2008, respectively.
From University Relations -- 06-02-2011
By Kristi Henderson
A University of Kansas mathematics professor and ITTC researcher whose outreach efforts have affected thousands of students in Kansas is the 2011 recipient of the Steeples Service to Kansas Award.
Bozenna Pasik-Duncan was honored for her accomplishments at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences graduate recognition ceremony May 22.
Don Steeples, the Dean A. McGee Distinguished Professor of Applied Geophysics, and his wife, Tammy, established the award in 1997 to honor Don Steeples' parents, Wally and Marie Steeples, and to recognize outstanding service by KU faculty to other Kansans. The award provides recipients with $1,000 and an additional $1,000 base adjustment to their salaries.
Thousands of students in grades K-12 have benefited from mathematics classes, workshops and competitions established by Pasik-Duncan.
In 1994, she started teaching mathematics classes four times a week in a Lawrence elementary school on top of her regular teaching load at KU. In just two years, the students won 17 awards at Kansas Regional Math Contests.
She has since expanded her contributions. She has organized and implemented Mathematics Awareness Month at KU for 17 years, which has received accolades from the governor and the Lawrence City Council. The mathematics competitions that are part of this program have attracted more than 1,000 students from about 90 Kansas schools in kindergarten through 12th grade in the past five years alone.
She has also established a partnership in mathematics education between local elementary schools and KU and an annual mathematics workshop for 5th and 6th graders in Lawrence and participates in about three workshops a year for high school teachers of mathematics and science in the United States and abroad.
Pasik-Duncan has been a faculty member in the Department of Mathematics since 1984. She has been honored with several of KU's most prestigious accolades, including the W.T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence; the Frank B. Morrison Award for distinguished teaching; induction into the KU Women's Hall of Fame; and the distinction of being the first mathematics professor to receive the HOPE teaching award since it was established in 1959.
Funds for the Steeples award are managed by KU Endowment, the independent, nonprofit organization serving as the official fundraising and fund-management for KU. Founded in 1891, KU Endowment was the first foundation of its kind at a U.S. public university.
EE senior Angela Oguna received the Class of 1913 award, which is given to a senior man and woman whose intelligence, devotion to studies and personal character give promise of usefulness to society. Marlesa Roney, vice provost for Student Success, and Kathryn Nemeth Tuttle, associate vice provost for Student Success, presented the award during Senior Design Lab II.
"I am both honored and humbled to receive this award. It is the result of a lot of hard work, which is complemented by the support I have received from my family, friends and my mentors," Oguna said. "My academic advisor [EECS Professor James Roberts] was very supportive when I transferred to KU, and he played an integral role in ensuring I got off on the right foot. The guidance I received on my first undergraduate research assignment at the Information and Telecommunications Technology Center (ITTC) equipped me with essential technical skills, in addition to widening my KU network. When I finally graduate, it will be with appreciation for the opportunities that have been made available to me and the confidence that I made the most of my time here at KU."
Since arriving from Nairobi, Kenya, as a transfer student in 2008, Oguna has garnered a number of prestigious honors. Last spring she became first KU student to win a Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, which encourages women to excel in computing and technology and become active role models and leaders. She was named - one of the outstanding scholars in America - at the 2009 National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Convention and later that year won a national Chrysler Foundation Scholarship from the Society of Women Engineers.
Oguna has been on the Dean's Honor Roll every semester since transferring KU in 2008 and is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honors society. This fall she received the Tau Beta Pi Record Scholarship, named for 1929 KU graduate Leroy E. Record.
Oguna is a mentor to incoming freshmen as an ambassador for the School of Engineering and is the president of the KU chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). In support of the NSBE mission of increasing the number of minority engineers, Oguna volunteered at Central Junior High School's after-school program this fall and last month helped judge the Vex robotics competition during the Kansas City Youth Technology Fair.
This month Oguna received a KU undergraduate research award (UGRA). The award is supporting the collection of detailed information about real-time energy use and cost, allowing consumers to make more informed decisions about their consumption. The independent research will help in the integration of Smart Grid technology for small-scale consumers. The effort was initially funded by the American Public Power Association Demonstration of Energy-Efficient Developments (DEED) grant that Oguna received last spring.
A 15-member selection committee comprised of students, faculty and staff, selects Chancellor Student Award winners from university-wide nominations. Recipients will receive special recognition during the Commencement Ceremony on May 22.
From The Oread -- 03-07-2011
In recognition of its accomplished history and continued excellence in radar research and development, KU was selected to lead the most distinguished conference within the field.
The 2011 IEEE Radar Conference will be held for the first time May 23-27 in Kansas City, and its theme,"In the Eye of the Storm," acknowledges the unpredictable Midwestern weather and the importance of radar in tracking severe storms. Nearly 500 leading scholars and industry practitioners from 24 countries will address how radar can measure climate change, support civil applications such as air traffic control, and advance technology to protect military personnel. The conference will take place at the Westin Crown Center. The IEEE is the world's largest professional association for the advancement of technology.
"It's a great honor for KU to serve in this capacity," said Shannon Blunt, a faculty researcher at KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC) and general chair of the conference.
ITTC Associate Director James Stiles will serve as the general co-chair. ITTC researcher Christopher Allen and KU alumnus Nathan Goodman, now an associate professor at the University of Arizona, are the technical chairs. Distinguished Professor Emeritus Richard Moore, who pioneered the field of radar remote sensing of the environment, is the honorary chair.
Allen, Blunt and Stiles are part of the Radar Systems and Remote Sensing Lab at ITTC. The breadth of the lab's research runs the gamut from the development of hardware systems for measuring the environmental phenomena to the theoretical investigation of futuristic sensor modalities. Over its more than 40 year history, the lab's research has been supported by NASA, the National Science Foundation and multiple agencies within the Department of Defense.
The conference falls under the purview of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the world's largest professional association for the advancement of technology with more than 400,000 members. The 2011 IEEE Radar Conference is sponsored by the Kansas City Section of the organization and its Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society, along with technical involvement from the group's Microwave Theory and Techniques Society and Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society.
ITTC doctoral student Brian Cordill was among the 33 graduate students from KU, Kansas State, and Wichita State who were selected to present their research and how it benefited Kansas to elected officials and the public on Feb. 17.
"I was pretty excited when I heard I was selected for the summit. It's not every day you are able to present your research to the Board of Regents and members of the Legislature," Cordill said. "I think the work we're doing can have a pretty big impact on Kansas businesses."
Jumbo jetliners to single-engine airplanes are now being made from a wafer-thin, granite-tough plastic material, known as carbon composite, which reduces fuel consumption by up to 20 percent. While composites offer greater durability and design flexibility, they can't protect sensitive electronic equipment like their aluminum counterparts. Metal provides a natural shield from weather, military, and other high-power radar signals that can jam equipment and cause other problems through electromagnetic interference (EMI).
Currently, manufacturers are unable to conduct EMI tests until a prototype is built, making changes costly and difficult. But under the direction of ITTC investigator Sarah Seguin, Cordill is using electromagnetic modeling software to identify possible EMI problems in the design phase. He compared virtual findings with physical measurements to ensure the accuracy of the software. The software was developed in collaboration with Mark Ewing, chairman of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and director of the Flight Research Laboratory, at KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC).
"EMI is a pretty wide-open problem with a lot of research focused on identifying and fixing problems, but what companies really need now is a way to bring down cost," said Cordill, who graduated with an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 2007. He attended the University of California-Los Angles for graduate school before returning to KU for his Ph.D.
The research was funded by the Aircraft Design and Manufacturing Research Center (ADMRC), a consortium of university and industry partners who address the technology needs of aircraft manufacturers and subcontractors.
From Lawrence Journal World -- 01-10-2011
By Andy Hyland
As she comes to Kansas University, Julie Goonewardene is all about helping turn faculty ideas into marketable ideas.
And those who worked with her at Purdue University say she's one of the best around at it. Those former colleagues include KU's Provost Jeff Vitter, who worked with her as a former dean of sciences at Purdue.
Goonewardene (it's pronounced goon-WAR-den) came to Purdue in 2005 after working with three different start-up companies.
She has worked at the Purdue Research Foundation in several roles, including as director of business development.
Goonewardene will start work at KU next week as associate vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship. She will work with both the Lawrence and KU Medical Center campuses.
She said she has a passion for helping faculty members be as successful as possible with start-up companies, including helping them with business plans and introducing them to potential investors.
"There is nothing in the traditional faculty career path that trains them to become an entrepreneur," she said.
Dan Raftery, a chemistry professor at Purdue, said he leaned on Goonewardene when establishing his business, Matrix-Bio, which features a diagnostic screening to help with early detection of breast cancer.
He knew he wanted to become an entrepreneur when the business began in 2006, but didn't know some of the basics, he said.
Goonewardene gave him advice and direction, including shaping his business plan, tempering his expectations and finding angel investors.
"She has a very, very broad network," Raftery said. "She's one of the best-connected people in the state. It's going to be a real loss for Purdue and a real gain for Kansas."
Goonewardene said, after taking her last venture-capital based software company public, she began to see the opportunities available for working with faculty members.
"I come from an academic family," she said. "My father and several of my cousins are professors. I care a great deal and have a great admiration for what happens at a university."
One area of focus at KU will be bringing in many different disciplines of the university to help with entrepreneurship. People skilled in communications, she said, can help new businesses communicate effectively with the public.
Raftery said at Purdue, Goonewardene helped him connect with business students who contributed to his business plan.
Purdue has long been plugged into entrepreneurial opportunities- its decades-old Purdue Research Park on campus is home to more than 140 companies and employs more than 2,700 people.
The park has been a good source of high-quality jobs in the area, and keeps talented students employed in the city of West Lafayette, Ind., especially with Indianapolis looming nearby, Raftery said.
And entrepreneurial opportunities such as the ones Goonewardene offers can help retain quality faculty, too, he said.
When companies successfully license technologies, it can be a financial boon for both the university and the inventor, Goonewardene said. But often, it means more than that, she said. In the case of Raftery's Matrix-Bio, his potential new screening for breast cancer could save a mother, a daughter or an aunt. And helping people accomplish that type of goal is her real passion, she said.
She said she was looking forward to coming to KU, where she said she sees great opportunities for entrepreneurial success in KU's strong pharmacy and engineering programs, as well as other areas.
"I think KU's a little bit of a well-kept secret," she said. "I think in this central part of the country, we tend to be a little modest. We'll probably boast a little more about KU than we have in the past."
From University Relations -- 11-08-2010
By Michelle Ward
ITTC investigator Arvin Agah, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Kansas, received the 2010 ING Excellence in Teaching Award during the home football game on Nov. 6.
"Professor Agah always finds challenging projects that force students to think for themselves and truly learn the material to succeed. His role is often a mentor who guides students toward success but never simply hands them the solution," said Richard Stansbury, who had Agah as a professor and adviser as an undergraduate, graduate and doctoral student at KU. Stansbury, who finished his doctorate in 2007, is now an assistant professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Highlights from Agah's classroom projects include a robot sumo wrestling competition in which student teams developed, built and programmed a robot able to force fellow classmates' robots outside a 5-foot wide "wrestling mat." He refereed the 72-match round robin tournament that was the final project for his Robot Intelligence course in 2008. Agah's students won first place in the multi-university Cerner Corporation Software Design Competition in 2006. The Software Development Lifecycle course required students to develop software that could present, collect and analyze patient information on a specialized PDA for health care providers.
Christopher Gifford, who earned a doctorate from KU in 2009, had Agah as faculty adviser for the Space Robotics Challenge held at the 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. The robotic system received multiple awards for its low-cost design and standout information processing and mapping capabilities. When Gifford and fellow graduate students came to Agah about the challenge, he created a special projects class for them. Gifford says Agah's attention to the needs and interests of his students is part of what make him a great teacher. His guidance and support was instrumental to the success of the KU robotics team.
"Professor Agah's courses are always hands-on, enabling the students to work on real problems and find real solutions," said Gifford, now an information systems analyst at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. "He puts an emphasis on the material as well as the experience, which becomes valuable when moving on to life beyond the classroom."
KU graduate Shannon Skoglund is among the Perceptive Software staff that is co-teaching a graduate course on software engineering with Agah.
"I'm very impressed with Professor Agah's willingness to reach out to companies in the area and try innovative ways of teaching a class," Skoglund said."I think the real-world exposure is both rare and very valuable in a university setting."
Agah was associate chair for graduate studies for the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from 2005 to 2009. During his time as associate chair, Agah oversaw a number of graduate students who were nominated for and received prestigious Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowships.
This is the eighth year that the ING award has recognized outstanding teaching on the Lawrence campus. The global financial institution offers banking, investments, life insurance and retirement services to more than 85 million clients.
"I am extremely humbled and honored to receive this award," Agah said.
We are recognizing students and their efforts throughout this year's Annual Report . At ITTC, our students apply what they are learning in the classroom to research. They gain practical experience by conducting experiments, analyzing data, and performing other necessary, but sometimes tedious, research. Critical to the success of ITTC, students are often our unsung heroes.
Not to be outdone, ITTC faculty researchers earned top honors. ITTC investigator Jun "Luke" Huan spearheaded a $4.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. It will provide a 20-fold boost in computing power to ITTC's Bioinformatics Computing Facility. Huan was highlighted last year for receiving a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award. This year ITTC researcher Prasad Kulkarni received the prestigious CAREER award to support his ongoing efforts to integrate teaching and research. At ITTC, Kulkarni is building more secure and better performing software systems.
Technology maturation and commercialization are natural outgrowths of innovative ITTC research. This maturation process allows us to prepare roll-out ready technologies. It is not enough to create transformative technologies; we need to get them into the hands of Kansas businesses and entrepreneurs. ITTC also offers applied research, technical consulting, product development, and other services to assist Kansans with IT challenges and opportunities.
University of Kansas researchers have been awarded a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a searchable online database and library that links the 50-plus volumes of the "Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology," an important resource on climate change, evolution and other biodiversity research.
"Treatise" classifies all known extinct and living invertebrates (creatures without backbones), which make up 95 percent of the animal species. Finding new ways to electronically extract, analyze and store this authoritative compilation will lead to greater understanding of mass extinctions, evolutionary recoveries and current environmental threats. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from KU's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Paleontological Institute will create the Invertebrate Paleontology Knowledgebase to transform data management.
"IPKbase will help researchers more easily connect the dots," said Xue-wen Chen, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science and principal investigator of IPKbase. "The amount of information is overwhelming, and we are developing tools to help them mine data. By developing a fast and flexible online information repository, we will enable greater access to critical information."
KU researchers will develop a three-step process for IPKbase to handle the highly complex and immense "Treatise" data. Computational tools will extract and integrate images, text and numerical data. For example, image-based searches would allow paleontologists to compare photographs of a newly discovered fossil with known images. New data analysis, modeling and visualization techniques will discover patterns and provide meaningful interpretation. Finally, IPKbase would index information for easy retrieval and sharing.
James Miller, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and Luke Han, Bo Luo and Brian Potetz, all assistant professors of EECS, will be co-investigators on the project. Paul Selden, the Gulf-Hedberg Distinguished Professor of Invertebrate Paleontology, director of KU's Paleontological Institute and editor of the "Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology," will be a co-investigator as well. They will conduct the research at KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center.
"After half a century of scholars compiling and benefitting from this important repository of knowledge, today's researchers will have greater access to its knowledge through its digital presence and the incredible data mining techniques which our computer scientist colleagues are developing," Selden said. "This project will allow students of paleontology, young and old, and researchers in related industries, move forward on a variety of problems of concern to mankind."
Anne Carpenter, director of the Imaging Platform at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, discussed the CellProfiler software she co-developed on Wednesday in Nichols Hall. Her talk was part of the ITTC Distinguished Lecture Series.
Slides from "Extracting Rich Information from Biological Images" are now available online.
From University Relations -- 09-16-2010
Anne Carpenter, director of the Imaging Platform at the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, will discuss the CellProfiler software she developed to better understand healthy gene function and genetic causes of diseases at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 22, at the Apollo Room in Nichols Hall.
Carpenter's talk is part of the Information Telecommunication and Technology Center Distinguished Lecture Series."Extracting Rich Information from Biological Images" is free and open to the public.
"We are honored to have Dr. Carpenter visit," said Xue-wen Chen, director of ITTC's Bioinformatics and Computational Life Sciences Lab."Her work in cell image analysis software is pioneering a new research field. Dr. Carpenter is a perfect addition to our Distinguished Lecture Series, continuing our commitment to bring top-notch scientists to ITTC."
CellProfiler simultaneously processes thousands of images, automatically measuring the shape, location, texture and hundreds of other features within each cell. The software can uncover subtle differences or changes, isolate individual objects, such as nuclei, and compare data sets. CellProfiler produces results from large-scale experiments in hours compared to months of tedious, error-prone inspection by humans.
CellProfiler received Bio-IT World's Best Practices Award for IT and Informatics in 2009. The software's point-and-click format allows researchers--even those without a background in computer science--to easily customize and automate data collection for experiments. Carpenter developed CellProfiler after being unable to find commercial software that could analyze cell images. The free open source software debuted in 2005.
Carpenter received her doctorate in cell biology from Purdue University in 2003. In 2008, she was elected a fellow of the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences and featured in a PBS special, "Bold Visions: Women in Science and Technology." She was named a "Rising Young Investigator" by Genome Technology in 2007. In addition to a Novartis post-doctoral fellowship from the Life Sciences Research Foundation, Carpenter received a L'Oreal USA 2006 Fellowship for Women in Science, which recognized five female scientists considered to be leading researchers in the early phase of their careers.
Simon Thompson, a professor of Logic and Computation at the University of Kent, will discuss the refactoring tool, Wrangler, that he created for the Erlang programming language at 1 p.m. on Monday, September 27, in the Apollo Room in Nichols Hall. Thompson's talk, "Improving your Erlang programs and tests with Wrangler," is free and open to the public.
Improving the design of a program without changing its behavior-known as refactoring-is critical to development. Wrangler allows much more efficient and reliable interactive refactoring of Erlang programs. Currently, it supports a small number of basic Erlang refactorings, including renaming of variables, functions and modules. Embedded in the Emacs editing environment, Wrangler uses functionalities provided by Distel to manage the communication between tools and Emacs.
An expert on functional languages, Thompson focuses on program verification, type systems, and software tools for functional programming languages. His team has built the HaRe tool for refactoring Haskell programs and is developing Wrangler to do the same for Erlang. Thompson has an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University and a D.Phil. In mathematical logic from Oxford University.
From University Relations -- 07-20-2010
By Jill Jess
Jeffrey S. Vitter, provost and executive vice chancellor at the University of Kansas, is participating this week in three panels at the premier leadership conference in computer science.
Vitter, who is also an ITTC investigator and professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will chair a panel titled "Guidelines for Coordinating Faculty Recruitment" at the Computing Research Association biannual conference in Snowbird, Utah. The panel seeks to identify healthy hiring practices for the benefit of both departments and faculty candidates.
At the conference, Vitter also will join panels titled "Understanding and Using Graduate Program Rankings in Computer Science," which deals with the long-awaited and controversial National Research Council ratings, and "Managing Up-Partnering with Your Dean," a mentoring session for department chairs and heads.
The Computing Research Association is an organization of more than 200 North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government and academia engaging in basic computing research; and affiliated professional societies. CRA’s mission is to strengthen research and advanced education in the computing fields, expand opportunities for women and minorities, and improve public and policymaker understanding of the importance of computing and computing research in our society.
Vitter has more than 280 book, journal, conference and patent publications, primarily on the algorithmic aspects of processing massive amounts of information. He is a Guggenheim fellow and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He was named a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator and won a Fulbright scholarship.
There is no way (yet) to wirelessly network multiple aircraft traveling at Mach speeds over vast areas, but University of Kansas researchers are developing technologies to address this challenging situation.
In recognition of KU's efforts to improve the science of telemetering--measuring at a distance--the International Foundation for Telemetering has donated $60,000 to KU and named it a partner university.
A nonprofit organization, IFT promotes the professional and technical interests of the telemetering community by sponsoring conferences, educational activities and technical publications.
"This partnership will help KU strengthen opportunities for some of the best young minds out there," said Stuart R. Bell, dean of KU's School of Engineering. "I'm pleased that IFT sees the value and promise of the work being conducted here."
KU's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science will use the initial donation to award three IFT Fellowships to graduate students, purchase equipment for labs and senior design projects and support students traveling to conferences to present their research. As one of only six partner universities of IFT, KU can present additional gift requests and proposals at the annual meeting of the IFT Board of Directors, which KU will host next year.
"We are extremely honored to form this partnership with the IFT," said Erik Perrins, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science, who detailed KU's telemetry-related programs at the IFT board meeting last month. "We have been involved with the IFT and the larger telemetry community for the past five years and we look forward to having a synergistic relationship with them for many years to come. We are excited to host the IFT board next spring and let the board members see our engineering programs up close."
During the IFT board meeting last month at New Mexico State University, Perrins highlighted a trio of telemetry-related projects at KU's Information and Telecommunication Technology Center. The first is a NASA deep-space communication system that Perrins is helping build that must transmit large amounts of data but is subject to severe size, weight and power constraints. The second project, led by EECS Associate Professor James P.G. Sterbenz with Perrins as a co-investigator, is a wireless networking system that is specially designed for highly dynamic aircraft. This system will give test ranges new capabilities to conduct multiple tests simultaneously, instead of staggered over time.
In the third project, Perrins and Andy Gill, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, are developing hardware prototypes of a system that will locate and correct errors that naturally occur in a noisy transmission. This system uses a technology known as forward error correction, and in this project can correct errors even in weak signals that approach the theoretical limit, known as the Shannon capacity. Forward error correction technology has numerous other applications, including digital storage media and wireless cellular systems. The hardware prototypes are being implemented using efficient hardware description languages that Gill developed at KU, which greatly reduce the amount of engineering effort needed to produce the final design.
For more than four decades, IFT has sponsored the International Telemetry Conference, with a large portion of its proceeds going to partner universities. Electrical engineering and computer sciences students at KU have won best paper awards the past three years at the conference. In 2009, Gino Rea won first place in the graduate student paper contest. The previous year, doctoral student Justin Rohrer was the first student to win the overall best conference paper award. Prashanth Chandran won second place in the graduate student paper contest in 2007.
Today's computationally intensive research depends upon High Performance Computing (HPC) hardware to allow researchers to sequence genomes and peer into molecules. This vast computing power generates scientific breakthroughs with, unfortunately, a lot of unused heat.
A University of Kansas computing facility dedicated to life sciences research will enable a 20-fold boost in computing power thanks to a $4.6 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. In addition, the new design will utilize the heat generated from the computing hardware to supplement the building's heating infrastructure.
"This is a superb example of a win-win," said KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little. "Investigators on the cutting edge of biological research will have much more robust computing at their command and see that their research is energy efficient and sustainable--a priority for our campus."
KU researchers will renovate more than 3,500 square feet of computing space and 2,400 square feet of support space. A sophisticated computer-rack cooling system will shuttle heat from computing equipment into the Nichols Hall boiler room, resulting in an expected 15% reduction in building natural gas use. Additionally, when outdoor temperatures drop below 45 degrees, a "dry-cooler" will kick in, slashing electricity consumption by allowing cooling compressors to be powered down.
KU's Bioinformatics Computing Facility, housed at the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center in Nichols Hall, will be updated and expanded through an NIH Recovery Act Limited Competition: Core Facility Renovation, Repair and Improvement grant.
"We are confident that the renovated core facility will prove to be an exemplary centralized computational resource," said Jun "Luke" Huan, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, who spearheaded the project. "It is well-positioned to meet the ambitious data analysis needs of KU biomedical research and to dynamically respond to future computational challenges."
Examples of research projects conducted at ITTC's bioinformatics cluster include prediction of the misfolding of proteins that contributes to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases; sequencing of genomes; data mining of emergent chemical genomics databases; and development of approaches to uncover interactions between genes and proteins.
Such advanced biomedical research pushes computer systems to their limit.
"The existing BCF is running at capacity and cannot be expanded further," said ITTC Acting Director Perry Alexander. "It supports more than 50 research projects and 10 core service laboratories. Researchers from across KU participated in this proposal. It was a university-wide effort to increase high-performance computing capacity for an exceptionally diverse collection of researchers, ranging from life sciences to engineering, while focusing on sustainability and energy efficiency."
For researchers across KU, the renovations also will increase access to computational resources by improving network connectivity between the facility and the rest of the Lawrence campus, the KU Medical Center and external organizations.
ITTC, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research and Graduate Studies, Molecular Graphics and Modeling Laboratory, K-INBRE Bioinformatics Core, Biodiversity Institute, Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Design & Construction Management and Information Technology all contributed to the winning grant proposal.
Angela Oguna, a junior in electrical engineering, is the first University of Kansas student to win a prestigious Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship. The $10,000 scholarships were awarded to 32 exceptional female undergraduate and graduate students in computer science and related technical fields.
The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology and Google created the highly competitive scholarship to encourage women to pursue careers in computer science and technology and to become leaders and role models. Scholarship recipients and finalists are invited to participate in all-expenses-paid networking retreat at Google this June.
"All of us in the School of Engineering are proud of Angela and the potential she already is bringing to bear at KU and abroad," said Stuart Bell, dean of engineering."I’m confident she will continue to make great achievements throughout her career."
Since transferring to KU in 2008, Oguna has collected an array of honors. She was named "one of the outstanding scholars in America" at the 2009 National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Convention. She also won a national Chrysler Foundation Scholarship from the Society of Women Engineers. Oguna has been on the Dean’s Honor Roll every semester and has received regional and University accolades for her research. Additionally, she serves as an engineering ambassador, meeting with prospective students visiting campus and alumni.
"I am definitely ready for senior year now. This award alleviates a considerable financial burden," said Oguna, of Nairobi, Kenya. "I am grateful for the support that I have received from my family, my friends and my mentors who have been instrumental in my success at KU."
At KU’s Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC), Oguna tests sensors that monitor cargo transported by rail cars. The theft detection system provides stakeholders with greater visibility, security and accountability of their goods. ITTC researchers are working with KU’s Transportation Research Institute and KC SmartPort, an economic development group, to develop secure, efficient transportation corridors throughout Kansas City.
"Angela is a highly motivated student. She has taken the initiative on a number of projects and activities during the past few years," said Gary Minden, director of ITTC's Communication and Networking Systems Lab."Her motivation and initiative are complemented with a solid engineering foundation."
This spring Oguna was selected for an American Public Power Association Demonstration research grant. The Energy-Efficient Developments (DEED) program sponsors research related to improving efficiencies and lowering the cost of services provided by publicly owned electric utilities. Oguna’s research will generate details information about real-time energy use and cost. As a result, consumers will be able to make more informed decisions about their consumption. Her industry sponsor is the Kansas City Board of Public Utilities.
While Austin Arnett visited and was accepted to Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley, he chose to attend the University of Kansas. It is a decision he would make all over again. In fact, he is. Arnett, who is graduating with honors in EE this May, will begin graduate school at KU this fall. He will focus on radar systems as he pursues a master’s degree in EE.
"It has been a really good experience, which is why I am coming back," says the El Dorado native. "My professors have been a great resource."
Arnett points to KU’s outstanding facilities, especially Eaton Hall with its state-of-the-art classrooms and laboratories. Among his favorite classes were EECS 622 (Hardware Design) and EECS 502 (Senior design Lab). The former introduces the fundamentals of radio transmission systems, including wireless communication devices and radar. Arnett designed a radio transmission system to meet a given specification. In the Senior Design Lab, Arnett says students must use pieces of each core class to build a system. His team is designing and building an ultrasonic location and tracking system that uses a speaker to transmit two ultrasonic tones at known frequencies. They process the signals from each receiver and use the difference in phase information of each received signal to locate its exact position.
He says KU was the "best and most affordable option" for him. He received a Summerfield Scholarship as well as renewable scholarships from Garmin, EECS and the School of engineering. An interest in math, science and problem solving led him to EE. Radios and radar have become focus areas for Arnett.
At KU’s Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC), Arnett is conducting research on radar-embedded communication for his honors project. There is a great need for a reliable covert communication system for soldiers in hostile territory. Too often, eavesdroppers can intercept messages. EECS Assistant Professor Shannon Blunt is developing technology that will enable soldiers’ messages to"piggyback" on existing radar signals. Current covert communication of this type requires hundreds of radar pulses to convey just one communication symbol thus resulting in very low data rates. In contrast, Blunt’s team embeds a communication symbol into each individual radar pulse. Preliminary results suggest the potential for operation at data rates 1,000 times faster than current radar-embedded communication systems while offering at least the same level of security.
"I am looking into the practical implementation of radar-embedded-communication (REC) theory. Up to now, there have only been computer simulations done to evaluate and test REC ideas," says Arnett. "I am using an actual radar system in ITTC’s Radar and Remote Sensing Lab (RSL) to implement and explore challenges faced during implementation."
"I have been very impressed with Austin’s willingness to go after an unconventional problem," says Blunt, Arnett’s advisor. "He has also demonstrated the ability to work independently towards a solution. These are the hallmarks of a good researcher."
In addition to being an honor student, Arnett was a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity and KU Bowling Team. He served as president during the 2009-2010 bowling season. He notes that KU is a huge campus with numerous clubs and activities. Arnett says it is important to find things you enjoy and get involved.
"Be proactive and do things ahead of time," says Arnett when asked what advice he would give to students. "Managing your time is important."
From Lawrence Journal World -- 04-25-2010
By Andy Hyland
Their work can range from how strokes affect senior citizens to trying to better predict Kansas crop yields.
Research and associated surveys being done at several of Kansas University’s research centers often benefit the state and region -- and are beginning to take an economic development focus in some areas, as well.
The research centers serve as organizations within KU to bring together researchers interested in the same general field of research, though many times from different academic disciplines.
In the case of the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center, researchers are being tasked not only to develop new technologies, but also to push those technologies out into the marketplace, said Perry Alexander, the center’s interim director.
"It changes the game," Alexander said. "University researchers, we’re not usually thinking about money. That’s not our mindset. We’re thinking about new knowledge."
The center is currently working on a wide variety of information technology issues, including one that Alexander said is playing a growing role nationally-- information assurance. Namely, ensuring that secure data and information is protected from unwanted intruders.
Not only is it useful in matters of national security, Alexander said, but also has applications for everything from keeping a student’s grades confidential to protecting a patient’s medical records.
The center employs a staff person who helps connect with companies and tries to market the technology, though Alexander admits it can be a difficult process. But when it works, it works well, with money flowing to the company, to KU, to ITTC and to the researcher who discovered the technology.
"When we do this, it’s a win for everybody," Alexander said.
At Kansas Geological Survey, researchers are working on a $5 million grant from the National Science Foundation to work on issues related to carbon dioxide sequestration near Wellington. The technology would look to harness harmful carbon dioxide gases from energy development and store it underground.
Rex Buchanan, interim director of the Kansas Geological Survey, said the technology is still in its early stages. "If (carbon dioxide) sequestration ever comes to pass, it’ll come to Kansas in a big way because of its energy and mining operations," he said. "We’ll just be better at what we’re already doing."
The geological survey is partnering with industry firms like Wichita-based BEREXCO Inc. and Bittersweet Energy Inc. to support the project.
Kansas Biological Survey, too, features some research that’s being tested in the marketplace. Jude Kastens, an assistant research professor at the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing program, uses satellite imagery to create a detailed crop forecast for the state and the nation.
Kastens’ crop mapping tools are being tested in the open market. Armed with 21 years of data to support his forecasting, Kastens is working with an outside company to determine whether his models will sell.
He said he hopes the data will continue to be one more piece of information for farmers to weigh when they make their business decisions.
"In the big picture, we’re just trying to give people a feel for where they’re going to be come harvest time so they can make better marketing decisions," he said.
Angela Oguna, an ITTC undergraduate research assistant, has placed third in the student paper contest at the IEEE Region 5 Annual Business Meeting and Student Contests, held April 16-18 in Grapevine, Texas.
She won $200 and received an all-expense-paid trip to Grapevine for the competition.
Oguna was part of a team of researchers that tested sensors as part of the Transportation Security SensorNet (TSSN) project. The sensors monitored cargo transported by rail cars. Before TSSN, information vacuums occurred en route. The theft detection system provides stakeholders with greater visibility, security and accountability of their goods. ITTC researchers also analyzed the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) signal coverage along a railroad track in Kansas City, Mo. Oguna’s paper, "Transportation Security Sensor Network: Sensor Selection and Signal Strength Analysis," describes their testing and results. Gary Minden, Director of ITTC’s Communication and Networking Systems Laboratory, led the research.
The Region Student Papers Competition encourages the development of technical communication skills. The competition includes an oral presentation and written paper related to aspects of subjects relevant to the IEEE. Competitions occur at the local, area and regional levels. Universities from 12 Midwestern states make up Region 5.
Finding patterns and relevant information within data can help prevent diseases, combat terrorism and pinpoint business trends. A leader in data mining research will visit the University of Kansas to discuss the analysis of large data sets.
Jiawei Han, a professor of computer science at the University of Illinois, has begun analyzing immense interconnected networks--from the human genome to credit card transactions--to better locate treasures hidden within data networks. He will present "Mining Heterogeneous Information Networks by Exploring the Power of Links" at 3 p.m. Friday, April 16, at the Apollo Room in Nichols Hall. The talk is sponsored by the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center.
According to the Economist, the information management industry is growing 10 percent a year, roughly twice as fast as the software business as a whole. The industry is estimated to be worth more than $100 billion. Data mining was initially used to detect fraud and waste. Today, retailers, health care companies and financial institutions analyze large data sets to find ways to reduce costs and increase sales. Credit cards, frequent shopper cards and other profiling information provide mountains of data on shopping patterns and trends.
By examining data from the Web and other sources, counter terrorism officials help identify money transfers and communications among suspected terrorists.
"Professor Han is a leader and a pioneer researcher in data mining and database fields,"said Xue-wen Chen, director of ITTC’s Bioinformatics and Computational Life-Sciences Laboratory, who was instrumental in bringing Han to KU. "His work has been instrumental in many areas, including knowledge discovery in databases, object-oriented databases, spatial databases, text and Web mining, bio-data mining and social networks."
Han will discuss link-based information integration, truth validation, clustering and integrated clustering and ranking during his talk. He will introduce recent research and explain ongoing studies that include object distinction analysis, veracity analysis and RankClus: integrated clustering and ranking.
Han has more than 400 journal and conference publications in data mining, data warehousing, database systems and information network analysis. He is the founding editor-in-chief of Association for Computing Machinery Transactions on Knowledge Discovery from Data. Han is a fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and the Institute of Electric and Electronic Engineers.
From University Relations -- 04-05-2010
By Cody Howard
Researchers from the University of Kansas are using a mathematical tool in a new way that could have important implications in the treatment of those with epilepsy.
Originally, the mathematical algorithm known as SAFFIRE (Source Affine Image Reconstruction) was designed to pinpoint the location of radio frequency signals. But researchers from the KU School of Engineering and the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center at the KU Medical Center are using those same equations to analyze data of the brain in groundbreaking ways.
The research improves how data from Magnetoencephalography, known as MEG, is interpreted. MEG measures the infinitesimal magnetic fields generated by brain activity. The readings of those fields then are used to detect abnormalities in brain function and to assist researchers in identifying how various parts of the brain work.
The MEG innovation is built upon research funded by a $330,000 Department of Defense grant designed to help the U.S. Navy improve radar sensitivity. In the course of the research, a team led by Shannon Blunt, assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science, worked to define the precise location of a specific RF signal.
"As we looked into this, we developed a mathematical structure to solve the problem, and it worked really well," Blunt said.
A colleague introduced Blunt to Mihai Popescu, a research assistant professor with the Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology at the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, since both were working on signal processing problems. Their conversation turned to the problems with interpreting data from MEG.
"The drawback with MEG to date is that there are not generally good ways of taking the data collected and generating that resulting image of brain activity," Blunt said."It’s a really hard problem to solve. We actually took the approach that we had used for RF sensors and tried it out. We had to alter it some, but we ended up with an approach that worked well on real MEG data."
Apart from assisting research studies, the new method of reading MEG data could help in the treatment of those with epilepsy. About 30 percent of epilepsy patients don’t respond well to medication.
"When that happens, the doctor might opt for surgery to work on areas that trigger the seizures," said Popescu. "So the patient can have an MEG test at the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center, where we record brain signals for 30 to 60 minutes. We analyze the MEG data and identify those brain areas responsible for seizures."
The information is key in pre-surgical planning and can help doctors avoid a more invasive technique to confirm the data revealed through the algorithm, Popescu said.
The algorithm has been tested on data from previous studies but has not yet moved on to clinical trials with patients. In the meantime, Blunt and Popescu continue to work to unlock the mysteries around the process.
"Our solution depends on the presumed knowledge that we have a ‘perfect’ electromagnetic spatial model of the head," Blunt said. "However, this perfect knowledge is impossible in reality. So the next step is to compensate for our ignorance. We have an approach that does this now, which is why the SAFFIRE algorithm works at all on real data, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do better."
The SAFFIRE approach is patent pending.
ITTC investigator Prasad Kulkarni has received one of the most prestigious National Science Foundation honors given to junior faculty members. The multiyear Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award will support Kulkarni's ongoing efforts to build more secure and better performing software systems.
"These highly selective grants are awarded to junior faculty members who are considered to be academic leaders of the future. Prasad is a dedicated researcher and highly deserving of this honor, and his work is critical to our national prominence in cyber security," says Perry Alexander, Acting Director of the Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC). "Additionally, we are delighted to have three researchers in the last four years receive CAREER awards. Our younger faculty members are being recognized for their pioneering research and effective integration of scholarship and teaching."
At ITTC, Kulkarni is developing a more secure and efficient framework for virtual machines (VMs), which ensure compatability between applications and the devices running them. Cell phones, PDAs and computers are among the billions of devices that have VM software running Internet programs and applications. To limit the cost and start-up time, current VMs apply only basic security checks. Devices are then left vulnerable to viruses and other malicious software that can corrupt and steal private data?from passwords to address books.
Kulkarni’s new VM framework will slice out the security management and program monitoring tasks and perform them simultaneously with the main program. The framework will reduce the overhead of monitoring and security tasks and allow more secure and efficient execution of future programs.
"This new framework will allow developers to provide new and more expensive security checks while minimizing the performance penalty incurred at runtime," says Kulkarni. "Our approach will employ program slicing to construct only the program state required for each security task. The proposed framework will naturally exploit the anticipated growth in the number of processing cores on a chip to run individual program slices concurrently with each other and with the main program thread."
Kulkarni received his bachelor's in computer engineering from Poona University in 2001 and earned a master's and Ph.D. degrees in computer science from Florida State University in 2003 and 2007, respectively.
A University of Kansas doctoral student in computer science has been awarded a $30,000 National Science Foundation fellowship through its Graduate STEM in K-12 Education (GK-12) program. GK-12 supports partnerships between future scientists and science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) teachers to improve Fellows’ teaching and communication skills, advance STEM education in middle schools and provide role models for younger students.
Megan Peck will bring innovative, cutting-edge ideas from computer science and math into area middle school classrooms. In collaboration with partner teachers, she will develop interactive demonstrations and other projects aimed at igniting student interest in scientific study and careers.
"I’m very grateful for the fellowship and looking forward to the challenge of incorporating some basic computer science and math that I've learned into the middle school curriculum," says Peck, who graduated with distinction in computer engineering from KU in 2006 and started work on her doctorate the following semester. "I believe opportunities to interact with and learn from different groups will make me a much more effective educator."
"This is a perfect fellowship for Megan," says her advisor, Perry Alexander, Acting Director of ITTC. "She is an excellent theoretical computer scientist and wants to be an educator. After being a teaching assistant for several years, this is a logical next step in her preparation for an academic career."
Steven Case, Director of the KU Center for Science Education, says Peck will help close the gap between what scientists know and what the public understands about science. Science teaches students to observe, test and collect evidence before making conclusions. People can use science to become better critical thinkers and problem solvers. Science must be taught in a way that allows students to integrate this thought process into their daily lives.
"Megan is an ideal candidate for helping us build this bridge between scientists and the public," says Case, who is coordinator of KU GK-12. "A graduate of Lansing High School, Megan is someone whom students will identify with. She is smart and articulate and understands that we must find new ways to capture and challenge students’ natural curiosity about the world around them."
Additionally, the fellowship supports Peck’s research in the Computer Systems Design Lab at ITTC. Different vocabulary and engineering processes hamper communication among functionality, power and other subsystems within complex electronics. Rosetta software allows designers to better understand how these components interact, enabling faster and more accurate production. Peck’s research focuses on mathematical applications to better define components’ interactions within Rosetta software.
On February 23, Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Danny Anderson presented ITTC Network Specialist Wesley Mason with the KU Employee of the Month Award at Nichols Hall. Mason joined ITTC in 2005.
ITTC investigators say Mason is the go-to guy when they are in need of innovative solutions to computer or networking problems. Researchers are always impressed at how fast Mason solves their problems, according to Michael Hulet, ITTC senior network system administrator. Hulet adds that Mason has saved ITTC tens of thousands of dollars by implementing free open source software over commercial products. Mason’s latest project was Zimbra, an open source server software that incorporates e-mail, calendar information, file storage, web management and other applications. Hulet says a comparable commercial product would have been cost prohibitive for ITTC.
"Maintaining such cutting-edge knowledge demands many extra hours of study," says Hulet. "He mainly does this activity on his own time since he is usually helping ITTC users much of the day."
A MacGyver of sorts, Mason once rigged a temporary core network switch, which connects all ITTC computers, out of spare parts. This allowed ITTC researchers and staff continued access to network resources. Mason diagnosed the problem with the main core network switch, ordered the replacement parts and fixed the switch with minimal downtime to the Center.
Mason has even been involved in some after-hours heroics. The aptly named cold room, which houses millions of dollars of equipment, must remain at 70 degrees Fahrenheit for the computers to function optimally. A leak in the air conditioning unit was causing liquid to drip on a compressor, creating smoke and shutting down the air conditioner. This triggered several alarms. Mason rushed over to Nichols Hall, quickly found the cause of the smoke and took decisive action to save the equipment. He also stayed to assist the fire department and make sure there were no more issues.
KU departments and organizations call on Mason for his technical expertise in networking and computers. He is always willing to share his technical expertise with others, says Hulet. Mason recently served on a project to centralize several computing clusters around campus. His expertise has been instrumental in the planning and implementation of this software.
ITTC Research Associate Professor Daniel Deavours is the Technical Program Chair for the 2010 IEEE International Conference on RFID (radio frequency identification) in April. The emerging tracking technology enables greater visibility. Monitoring the location and conditions of assets, inventory and more, companies can reduce operational costs and optimize business processes.
Deavours points out that the conference boasts a high degree of academic and industry involvement and participation, which is in step with the ITTC mission.
He is overseeing the peer review process. He ensures that submitted papers receive proper review, stimulates discussion among reviewers and reaches out to additional experts when necessary. With input from reviewers, Deavours decides what papers will be accepted for the conference.
He also serves as a member on the general organizing program committee. He led the effort to start a poster session to include early stage research that may not be ready for the main conference.
For more information, go to IEEE International Conference on RFID.
EECS doctoral student Daniel Fokum was one-of-75 students selected to participate in Google’s inaugural Graduate Researchers in Academia of Diverse backgrounds (GRAD) Computer Science Forum, held Jan. 21-23 in Mountain View, CA. Designed to build and strengthen networks among emerging computer scientists, the event featured round table discussions along with technical talks from Google researchers and those within academia.
"Coming from a group that is typically underrepresented in computer science, I was inspired to see this diverse group of researchers," says Fokum who is from Cameroon, West Africa. "I exchanged business cards with a number of participants and have already received a few e-mails. While an important networking event, the forum also highlighted the importance of diversity."
Fokum underscores this point with the story of T.V. Raman, a Google engineer who is blind. As traditional buttons on telephones are replaced by virtual buttons on touchscreens, blind people lose the ability to locate buttons through standard placement. Raman developed software for the new Android phone that enables the first point touched on a screen to become the "5" key. From there, a swish to the right would get a "6" or a down and left movement would access a "7'key. The system resets when users take their finger off the screen.
Google engineers selected Fokum and other participants for their academic excellence and leadership in computing. As part of his dissertation research at KU’s Information and Telecommunication Technology Center (ITTC), Fokum has helped develop the Transportation Security SensorNet (TSSN). TSSN integrates hardware, software and sensors to enable real-time monitoring of goods en route and alerts authorized individuals of tampering. Victor Frost, Dan F. Servey Distinguished Professor of EECS, serves as the principal investigator on the collaborative project. In addition to his research, Fokum teaches the Introduction to Digital Logic Design lab, EECS 140, this spring.
Fokum earned his M.S. in Computer Science with an emphasis in Networking at the University of Missouri - Kansas City in 2005 and B.A. in Computer Science from Park University in 2000.
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