ECE Newsletter – November 4, 2024

News  |  November 4, 2024

UCLA selected as 1 of 7 Institutions to receive Natcast’s $11.5 million Funding through the NSTC Workforce Partner Alliance Program

UCLA Samueli School of Engineering has been selected to receive funding as part of Natcast’s anticipated $11.5 million initiative through the NSTC Workforce Partner Alliance. This funding will establish the Center for Education of Microchip Designers (CEMiD), led by Professor Behzad Razavi. The center will aim to provide comprehensive training in analog and digital chip design for both engineering students and practicing professionals. Collaborating with esteemed institutions at Carnegie Mellon University, University of Hawaii, University of Notre Dame, and Stanford University, the program seeks to equip hundreds of undergraduate and graduate students nationwide with the skills necessary to design, fabricate, and test microchips, while also fostering industry connections to create a sustainable workforce development ecosystem.

CEMiD will also focus on training professors across various universities to broaden the program’s reach and impact. 

Please see UCLA news release.

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Ozcan Lab’s research on virtual tissue staining using AI was highlighted by Wiley and ACS Chemical and Engineering News

Please see Chemical & Engineering News by American Chemical Society and Wiley Analytical Science Magazine.

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In collaboration with UCLA Medical School, Ozcan Lab published a new paper on polarized light microscopy for examination of birefringent crystals in synovial fluid

Please see the full article.

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Assistant Professor Sergio Carbajo attended the World Laureates Association Forum in Shanghai, China

Professor Sergio Carbajo from UCLA and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory attended the invitation-only World Laureates Association Forum in Shanghai, China, on October 25-27, as one of the 10 international Young Laureates. He delivered a talk about Filming the Quantum World for hundreds of international scientists and over two dozen Nobel Prize Laureates across economics, physics, and life sciences. 

The World Laureates Forum gathers exceptional scientists across the globe yearly to explore the various facets of scientific excellence. This encompasses not only excellence in scientific research, but also excellence in connecting science to society, in developing and mentoring future scientists, in science management, and in providing valuable science advice to policymakers.

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Distinguished Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii’s Paper on Reconfigurable Meta-Surfaces Appeared on the Cover Page of Electromagnetic Science Journal

Distinguished Professor Yahya Rahmat-Samii’s review paper entitled: “Recent Advances in Reconfigurable Electromagnetic Surfaces: Engineering Design, Full-Wave Analysis, and Large-Scale Optimization” appeared on the cover page of Electromagnetic Science Journal, Electromagnetic Science vol. 2, no. 3, 0070201, September 2024, https://doi.org/10.23919/emsci.2024.0020 . This review paper, co-authored with

Professor Rahmat-Samii’s colleagues in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, presents a 25-page paper in full-color with 185 references. The work focuses on reconfigurable meta-surfaces for diverse applications in communication antennas and radar systems, organized around three primary aspects of reconfigurable electromagnetic surfaces: unit cell

engineering design, full-wave numerical analysis, and large-scale optimization techniques. To address these three core aspects, the authors conduct a comprehensive examination of the meta-surface design process in reconfigurable devices, presenting critical concepts and technical details in a structured manner.

Representative examples are provided throughout to support and unify these design stages, offering readers a resource for in-depth exploration of this significant, evolving and timely research area.

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Awards

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Distinguished Professor Asad M Madni elected Life Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and the Royal Society of Arts

Distinguished Adjunct Professor Asad M Madni has been elected Life Fellow of the Cambridge Philosophical Society and the Royal Society of Arts.

The Cambridge Philosophical Society (CPS) is a scientific society at the University of Cambridge with a membership of over 2000. It was founded in 1819 and is Cambridge’s oldest scientific society. The society was granted a royal charter by King William IV in 1832 and is governed by an elected council of senior academics. The society has published several scientific journals, including Biological Reviews (established 1926) and Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society (formerly entitled Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, published since 1843).

The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) was founded in 1754 as the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, it was granted a Royal Charter in 1847, and the right to use the term “Royal” in its name by King Edward VII in 1908. RSAs mission expressed in the founding charter was to “embolden enterprise, enlarge science, refine art, improve our manufacturers and extend our commerce”, but also of the need to alleviate poverty and secure full employment. Notable Fellows include Charles Dickens, Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Hawking, Karl Marx, Adam Smith, Marie Curie, Nelson Mandela, David Attenborough, Judi Dench, William Hogarth, John Diefenbaker, and Tim Berners-Lee. Today, the RSA has fellows elected from 80 countries worldwide. The RSA’s Patron was Elizabeth II and its current president is The Princess Royal (who replaced her father, The Duke of Edinburgh, in 2011).

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Hao Zhang, student of Professor Sergio Carbajo was Recognized as one of the Finalists in the Optica Student Paper Competition at ASSL/LAC 2024

We are proud to announce that Hao Zhang, a Ph.D. student at UCLA, and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory under the supervision of Professor Sergio Carbajo, had two of his papers selected as finalists in the highly competitive Student Paper Competition at the Advanced Solid State Lasers Conference (ASSL) / Laser Applications Conference (LAC) 2024 in Osaka, Japan. Out of numerous submissions, only 14 finalists were chosen, based on technical merit and innovative contributions:

[Oral Talk] “The Photoinjector Laser System at LCLS-II” (AM4A.2)

This paper provides a detailed overview of the photoinjector laser system of the LCLS-II, a world-class discovery machine, and the most powerful X-ray laser. It highlights innovations enabling high-quality, high-energy, and ultrashort X-ray pulse generation, contributing to advancements in X-ray Free Electron Lasers.

“Simultaneous Upconversion and Spectral Phase Control in Gas-Filled Fibers” (JTu2A.31)

This research investigates how to optimize spectral phase transfer efficiency and phase mapping through four-wave mixing in gas-filled hollow-core fibers. The new findings offer new possibilities for high-power lightwave shaping, with applications in nonlinear optics and photonics.

Optica Laser Congress and Exhibition provides a comprehensive view of the latest advances in solid-state laser development along with recent new applications. Beyond innovations in lasers themselves, this congress covers new science made possible by the development of ultra-high brightness and high power radiation sources, sources and devices for free space and quantum communications, LIDAR for autonomous vehicles, beam steering, materials processing and laser manufacturing.

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Seminars

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Upcoming PhD Oral Defenses

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Job Opportunities

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Design Verification Engineer at Apple

Do you have a passion for invention and self-challenge? This position gives you an opportunity to be a part of one of the most cutting edge and key projects that Apple’s Silicon Engineering Group has embarked upon to-date. As a Design Verification Engineer on their team, you’ll be at the center of the verification effort within our silicon design group responsible for crafting and productizing state-of-the-art Cellular SoCs!

You will have the opportunity to contribute to the verification effort of a set of complex SOCs delivering the Cellular solution. You will integrate multiple sophisticated IP level DV environments, craft highly reusable best-in-class UVM based test bench, implement effective coverage driven and directed test suites, deploy new tools and methodologies to deliver chips that are right-first-time. By collaborating with other product development groups across Apple, you can push the industry boundaries of what cellular systems can do and improve the product experience for our customers across the world!

Through this experience, you will learn all aspects of a large scale SOC design, Complex verification test benches, different types of SOC architectures, multiple high speed protocols, industry-standard low power architecture, best in class DV methodology, verification on accelerated platforms, knowledge on Cellular protocol, FW-HW interactions, complexities of multi-chip SOC debug architecture, etc.

Key Qualifications:

MS in EE or CS. Coursework in Digital Design, Computer Architecture, Object Oriented Programming, Networking Protocol. Programming experience in SystemVerilog or Python or C++ or Java.

Must be graduating by Dec ’24.

Please send your resume to j_lou@apple.com.

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Electronics/PCB Development Undergraduate Internship Opportunity

Employment Period: Year-round

Location: On-campus

Approximate hours per week: 5+ hours

Duration: 6-24 months

Salary / Pay rate / Stipend: $20/hour

Relevant Website: https://www.edroplets.org/

Job description

Digital microfluidics is a technology that enables programmable control over individual droplets using electrical signals on a chip, which has been transforming wet labs towards the era of lab-on-a-chip. You will develop electronic control circuits for operating digital microfluidics chips. This is a highly engineering-oriented project, which requires independent schematic design, PCB layout design, PCB manufacturing, and assembly outsourcing for various circuits and electronic systems. You will also work with the mechanical design and software development team guided by graduate students to create multiple products. These products will be used by numerous digital microfluidics researchers and startups around the world through an open-source platform (edroplets.org).

For domestic students (US Citizen or Permanent Resident), the payment may be a stipend from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program. 

For international students, the payment will be through a regular research fund.

For those who prefer research credits over stipends, SRP 99 or MAE 199 is also possible.

What you will get:

(1) You will experience creating a real-world electronic product for a transformative technology, which will be used by lots of real users!

(2) You will get hands-on experience and training in schematic/PCB/electronics design and development

(3) You will learn the basic knowledge and industry status of digital microfluidics, and participate in translating ground-breaking research into real-world products

(4) You may become a co-author of resulting journal and conference publications

Quality & skill desired:

(1) A strong and genuine interest in electronics is essential. If you are a DIYer who loves working with electronics and wants to build something impactful, this is a perfect project for you.

(2) Enjoy working in a team with different expertise is essential. The ability to articulate your work to non-technical team members is essential.

(3) Experience with Altium Designer, KiCAD or other PCB design software is a plus. Experience with LabView is a plus. Experience in making a PCB from design to manufacturing is a huge plus.

(4) No experience or knowledge of digital microfluidics is required

Interested? Please send your resume to Professor CJ Kim (cjkim@ucla.edu) and Leo Wang (wangqining265@gmail.com). If there’s a good match, you will be invited to an interview.

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Newsletter Submissions

To be included in future newsletters, please send the latest news, awards, publications and any upcoming PhD oral defenses to the Chair’s assistant, Winda Mak, at wmak@seas.ucla.edu. Please include “newsletter submission” in the subject line. The ECE newsletters will be sent bimonthly on the first and third Mondays of the month. Please ensure all submissions are received by the Wednesday before distribution to be included in the newsletter.