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Dennis S. Kim, Ph.D., alongside co-PI Travis Anderson, Ph.D., from UF Chemical Engineering, have received a DARPA CRYSTAL grant to replace costly trial-and-error methods in wafer bonding with predictive modeling. The project tackles a critical manufacturing challenge: even advanced platforms like lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) lack reliable models to predict optimal bonding conditions, limiting the scalable production of next-generation photonic, sensing, and electronic devices.

Hao Zeng, PhD, is the Moti Lal Rustgi Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics at the University at Buffalo (UB), State University of New York. He presents “Covalent 2D Magnets and Heterostructures” Thursday, Oct. 23 at 11am in MALA 5050.

Charudatta Phatak, PhD, is the Deputy Division Director and the Group leader of the Nanoscale Magnetic and Electronic Heterostructures group in the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory. He presents “Understanding Behavior of van der Waals Materials Using in-situ Transmission Electron Microscopy” Thursday, Oct. 9 at 1 pm in MALA 5050.

ECE researchers Hamed Dalir, PhD, and Elham Heidari, PhD, are collaborating with Relative Dynamics on a project recently funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which promises to expand the sensitivity of gravitational wave observatories such as LIGO and the planned space-based LISA mission, while also advancing applications in quantum magnetometry, fiber-optic gyroscopes, and biological imaging.

Representatives from National Instruments—a global manufacturer specializing in hardware, software, and electronic test equipment—will sponsor a series of activities in Malachowsky Hall on Wednesday, Sept. 24.

Monolithic Power Systems, manufacturer of small, highly energy efficient, easy-to-use industrial power management solutions, will dedicate a named lab space in Benton Hall on Thursday, Oct. 2. The newly renovated lab space is designed to strengthen the department’s research and teaching capabilities in the area of power electronics, while enhancing opportunities for collaboration.

Ufuk Topcu, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Judson S. Swearingen Regents Chair in Engineering. He presents “Control-Oriented Learning for Same-Day Autonomy” Thursday, Oct. 2 at 1:00pm in
MALA 7200.

A team of engineers has developed a new kind of computer chip that uses light instead of electricity to perform one of the most power-intensive parts of artificial intelligence — image recognition and similar pattern-finding tasks.

Using light dramatically cuts the power needed to perform these tasks, with efficiency 10 or even 100 times that of current chips performing the same calculations. Using this approach could help rein in the enormous demand for electricity that is straining power grids and enable higher performance AI models and systems.

“Apple SoCs:Roles & Skills Required” will outline Apple’s strategy for navigating the end of traditional semiconductor scaling by designing custom, heterogeneous Systems-on-a-Chip (SoCs). It details the complete chip design lifecycle, from initial architecture and functional design to post-silicon validation and production.

Sandip Ray, Ph.D., has received $300k in funding from the National Science Foundation in support of his research in the area of post-silicon validation. The project, “SOCRATES: Post-Silicon Validation of Hardware-Software Interactions,” is a collaboration with researchers at the University of Illinois-Chicago.