College of Engineering News • Iowa State University

Sound seeing: Sam Das pairs audio sensing with artificial intelligence to monitor International Space Station 

As an artificial intelligence research leader at Bosch, Samarjit Das (‘10 Ph.D. electrical engineering) has partnered with NASA to develop deep audio analytics technologies that monitor the health of machines in space. And back here on earth, he’s using audio sensing with AI to improve disease diagnosis.

ECpE makes Fortune’s best cybersecurity master’s degree list

A way to address the talent gap in expertise is with master’s degree programs. To help guide those people looking to launch their career in this fast-growing space, Fortune has ranked the top in-person master’s degree programs in cybersecurity in 2023.

Iowa State selected for Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale (FARMS) funding program

The Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale (FARMS) funding program examines how agrivoltaics can provide new economic opportunities to farmers, rural communities, and the solar industry.

What does community sound like? For Anna Hackbarth, it’s marching band music

“When I heard the ISU Cyclone Marching Band practicing during my first tour of campus, I just immediately fell in love. I knew I wanted to come to Iowa State and be in the band and be a part of all of it.

And, lucky for me, because I always planned to major in engineering, Iowa State is a great band school and a great engineering school.”

MRC fosters cutting-edge research and provides state-of-the-art equipment

Liang Dong, Vikram Dalal Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering was named the director of the Microelectronics Research Center (MRC) in 2022.
The MRC is a multi-disciplinary center focusing on the study of semiconductor materials, devices, and applications. The research conducted at the MRC includes microelectronics, photonics, compound semiconductors, nanomaterials, sensors, and microelectromechanical systems. The Center is utilized by research groups across the campus, industry specialists, and students.
“The Center provides our students with ampler opportunities for fabricating micro- and nanodevices. Our researchers have full access to a range of tools. The fabrication and characterization capacity we have is the foundation that our academic and industry communities need to innovate and scale in the micro- and nano-world,” Dong said, “The Center also provides an environment that fosters innovation and collaboration between researchers. We are working towards integrating expertise and strengths to initiate and develop new research activities and to succeed.”
One of Dong’s core research areas is in sensors. He has developed a suite of agricultural sensors to detect plant diseases, monitor their health status, and quantify water and fertilizer use efficiencies of crops.
These devices are just some examples of research that utilizes the MRC, which houses a lot of state-of-the-art equipment to use. This includes a 3D-nano-printer. This printer, worth more than half a million dollars, can print fine structures of less than one hundredth the size of human hair. This piece of equipment has a wide array of applications in low-cost sensors, micro-optics, and smart nanomaterials and devices.

Helping law enforcement hunt evil

Guan serves as the Cyber Forensic Coordinator for the Center for Statistic and Applications in Forensic Evidence (CSAFE). It was through CSAFE that Guan and his team developed EviHunter. This software can analyze a smart phone’s apps for evidence relating to a crime, and it is automatic and can speed up the investigation process by shortening the time to only 20-30 minutes per device.

Testing hybrid, soft/hard nanocarriers to deliver drugs to the brain

Rizia Bardhan made a fist with one hand then covered it with her other hand, like a baseball player catching a ball in the web of a fielder’s glove.

The fist represents a special nanocarrier filled with medicine, said the Iowa State University associate professor of chemical and biological engineering. The other hand represents a cell working out whether to catch that nanoparticle then take it, drugs and all, across its protective membrane into its interior.

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