July 11, 2022
Left to right: Research associate Yiwen E and PhD student Kareem Garriga of Prof. Zhang’s Terahertz Research Group, and Gerrit Bruhaug, a PhD student in the High Energy Density Physics Experiments group at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, with the Multi-TerraWatt laser, one of two lasers they will use to generate terahertz waves of record intensity.
Dear members of the Hajim School community,
Here are a couple of examples of the outstanding opportunities for our faculty and students to collaborate on interesting research projects across different disciplines at our University.
X.C. Zhang, the M. Parker Givens Professor at The Institute of Optics, has received a $500,000 National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to collaborate with researchers at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics on using high-power, energetic lasers to generate terahertz waves of record intensity. Members of X.C.’s lab, including research associate Yiwen E, will work closely with PhD student Gerrit Bruhaug of mechanical engineering, a member of LLE’s High Energy Density Physics Experiments group.
Research since the 1980s has demonstrated how terahertz waves can penetrate solid objects without damaging them. And, unlike X-rays, a THz wave does not harm human tissue and DNA. These qualities offer tantalizing THz applications for everything from discovering bombs in suspicious packages to detecting tooth decay. But the generation and manipulation of intense THz waves is still evolving.
So this collaboration could “open the doors for a large variety of linear and nonlinear light-matter interactions,” and “enable new science and advance numerous THz wave sensing and spectroscopy technologies,” X.C. says. Learn more.
Left to right: Ming-Lun Lee, Betty Wu ’23, Victoire Alleluia Shenge ’19 ’20 (T5), and Steve Philbert set up equipment to create a virtual version of Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre in downtown Rochester. The dummy head is equipped with microphones in each ear and an additional one on top. (Photo by J. Adam Fenster/University of Rochester.)
“Most people in my world—including most of my work—conduct experiments using artificial types of stimuli, far from the natural world,” says Duje Tadin, a professor and chair of brain and cognitive sciences. “Our goal is to do multisensory research not using beeps and flashes, but real sounds and virtual reality objects presented in realistically looking VR rooms.”
Ming-Lun Lee, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering; Steve Philbert, an electrical engineering PhD student; Joey Willenbucher ’23, an audio and music engineering major, and Haochen Zeng ’23, a computer science and business major and e5 student who works in Studio X, are part of a multidisciplinary team helping Duje and his lab members achieve their goal. They are creating a virtual version of Kodak Hall that can be used in Duje’s studies of how humans combine and process light and sound. The first project, initially conceived by Shui’er Han, a postdoctoral research associate, and Victoire Alleluia Shenge ’19, ’20 (T5), a lab manager in Tadin’s lab, will be a study of multisensory integration in autism. The project was motivated by prior work showing that children with autism have atypical multisensory processing. Learn more.
FACULTY AWARDS
Left to right, Hussein Aluie and Jiebo Luo.
Peer review is an important but often unheralded part of ensuring integrity in our scientific discourse, especially given the increasing complexity of papers submitted to journals. Much of the review process, note the editors of American Geophysical Union (AGU) Publications, is conducted by dedicated individuals who take time out from their own research to volunteer their time and expertise. Congratulations to Hussein Aluie, associate professor of mechanical engineering, who has been recognized with the 2021 Editors’ Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for the Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems (JAMES), an AGU journal. The reviewers recognized by AGU represent about 1 percent of the total pool of 20,000 reviewers who serve its 23 publications. Well done, Hussein. We all appreciate the extra time and effort that Hussein and many other Hajim faculty members dedicate to serving as editors and reviewers for peer-reviewed journals.
Congratulations as well to Jiebo Luo, professor of computer science, who has been invited to become a member of Academia Europaea, a pan-European academy of humanities, law, and science. Jiebo was elected for 2022/2023 based on sustained academic excellence in his field, as well as significant Europe-wide activities. He has worked on computer vision, natural language processing, machine learning, data mining, computational social science, and digital health, and has published extensively in these fields with a current h-index of 107. Jiebo is the current editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Multimedia and has served as general chair and program chair of leading computer vision and multimedia conferences. He is a fellow of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), AAAI (Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence), IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), SPIE (the international society for optics and photonics), and IAPR (International Association of Pattern Recognition), and has received major technical achievement awards from ACM and IEEE.
BME DESIGN TEAM
Left to right, Alexander Rivera, Chastity Chavez, John Bates, and Madison Lang, all ’22 of biomedical engineering, after winning second place at student design competition.
A Department of Biomedical Engineering senior design team that finished well in this year’s Forbes Entrepreneurial Competition also placed high in a tight Student Design Competition at the recent Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering & Biotransport Conference. SB3C is an annual meeting organized in conjunction with the Bioengineering Division (BED) of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
“Their presentation was excellent!” says Amy Lerner, professor of biomedical engineering and co-director of the department’s senior design program. The students took second place for a posture modification device to provide comfort, ease, and relief for patients with neurogenic bowel dysfunction, just as they did in the Forbes Competition. You can read more about their project at our Design Day website.
Have great week!
Your dean,
Wendi Heinzelman
