UK ECE Summer 2021 Newsletter

UK Electrical and Computer Engineering

Summer Newsletter 2021

Faculty and Research News

Kentucky NNCI Node receives $3.5 million

The Kentucky Multiscale node of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) program was recently renewed through 2025 by the National Science Foundation with an additional $3.5 million of support. The UK NNCI team is led by ECE Professor Todd Hastings.

Read about NNCI Renewal

Luis Sanchez Giraldo receives $598,000 from DEPSCoR

Luis Gonzalo Sanchez Giraldo, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded $589,000 over three years by the Department of Defense for a new project through its Defense Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (DEPSCoR) awards competition. Nathan Jacobs, associate professor in Computer Science, is co-investigator on the project. The project is titled "Measures of Information via Representation Learning" and focuses on new approaches to Machine Learning.

Using Drones to Watch Cattle

Mike Sama, joint Faculty member in ECE and Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, has been working with a research team developing a way for farmers to autonomously monitor cattle using drones. This work was recently highlighted in a BBC feature article on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

Alexandra Paterson joins UK Faculty

Alexandra Paterson recently joined the Chemical and Materials faculty, with a joint appointment in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Dr. Paterson earned her PhD in 2017 from the Imperial College London and is an expert in the area of flexible and organic micro-electronics.

Student News

Two ECE Students Receive NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Rosemary Alden and Donovin Lewis, ECE seniors and undergraduate research students in Dr. Dan Ionel's SPARK Lab, have each received prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowships. UK ECE is one of only a handful of departments in the entire country to have more than one such awardee in the same year. Ten students at UK, five from the College of Engineering, were selected for NSF GRF awards in total. Both Rosemary and Donovin plan to pursue their PhD studies with Dr. Ionel.

Read about UK's NSF GRF Awardees

Carson Labrado Receives Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award

Carson Labrado, student of Dr. Himanshu Thapliyal and recent Ph.D. graduate in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, was the 2021 recipient of the College of Engineering's Outstanding Ph.D. Student Award. Dr. Labrado has made outstanding contributions to research concerning cybersecurity for Internet of Things (IoT) devices and smart vehicles, including new approaches to device-level hardware security. Dr. Labrado has published nine journal publications, five conference publications, and has submitted a U.S. patent application.

Read More about the Maurice Clay Award

Alumni News

BSEE Alum David Shippy Inducted into Engineering Hall of Distinction

David Shippy was inducted this spring into the UK College of Engineering Hall of Distinction. Shippy served as IBM’s chief architect and technical leader in the area of high-performance microprocessor chips, which included technology for handheld devices, notebook computers, desktop computers, game machines, mainframes and supercomputers. He led the architecture team for the microprocessor technology in the Deep Blue supercomputer that was the first computer to defeat a human, Garry Kasparov, in a game of chess. Later, Shippy became the chief architect for the supercomputer on a chip technology in the Xbox/360 and PlayStation/3, which set speed records.

Full Hall of Distinction story

Young Alumni Philanthropy Council Welcomes Inaugural Class

The Young Alumni Philanthropy Council, a newly launched alumni group, has welcomed twenty-four alumni as inaugural members. The group is comprised of engineering graduates under the age of 40 who will work together with the Dean’s Advisory Council and the College of Engineering’s Campaign Committee.