UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science assistant professors Kenle Chen, Zhaomiao (Walter) Guo and Luigi Perotti have been named 2023 U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development program (CAREER) award winners. The combined award total is an estimated $1.5 million.
Recipients of this prestigious, early-faculty award exhibit the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education, and lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.
Each UCF awardee is using their expertise to study the core part of a key system 麻豆精品 S� whether it 麻豆精品 S檚 Perotti understanding heart mechanics in relation to health and disease, Guo 麻豆精品 S檚 research on harnessing solar power through electric vehicles or Chen, who is redefining high-speed connectivity used in communication antennas.
Non-Magnetic Technology for the Future of Communications
Kenle Chen
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project Title: Non-Reciprocally Coupled Load-Modulation Platform for Next-Generation High-Power Magnetic-Less Fully Directional Radio Front Ends
Award: $500,000
Our current radio spectrum, or the range of frequencies used for wireless communications, is quickly becoming congested due to rapidly increased user volume from humans and smart devices, as well as from new wireless technologies, such as Wi-Fi7, 5G+ and more.
Assistant Professor Kenle Chen, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, is developing a first-of-its-kind technology that could alleviate this congestion and allow for more efficient and reliable communications.
In emerging communication systems, an essential device is a circulator that helps control the flow of signals by routing them between an antenna, transmitter and receiver. It can be found on base stations on Earth and on satellites in space.
Traditional circulators rely on 麻豆精品 S渕agnetic material, 麻豆精品 S� in which signals travel in one direction under the influence of a magnetic field.
麻豆精品 S淚 can foresee that this research will be wildly exciting and enable knowledge for the future 6G systems featured as joint communication and radar, 麻豆精品 S� Chen says.
Recently, microchip-based, non-magnetic circulators have become possible, but their performance is far from their magnetic counterparts. For instance, state-of-the-art non-magnetic circulators can only handle watt-level of transmission power, which is far below the usable range of many realistic systems, Chen says.
Chen 麻豆精品 S檚 approach unleashes the high-power operation of a non-magnetic circulator in an indirect way that will enable more than 10 watts of signal transmission and allow bidirectional signal flow at the antenna interface. Making the technology completely magnetic-less renders a more affordable solution for wireless industries, Chen says.
麻豆精品 S淚t 麻豆精品 S檚 a way to directionally route the transmission signal and receive signal, so it’s a bidirectional process, using a single unified antenna, 麻豆精品 S� Chen says. 麻豆精品 S淚t will meanwhile enhance the efficiency of high-power amplifiers, the most energy-consuming unit on all wireless platforms. 麻豆精品 S�
Additionally, current magnetic circulators are quite expensive, large and heavy in size 麻豆精品 S� leading to high manufacturing and installation costs for the system as well as increased maintenance requirements. Chen 麻豆精品 S檚 new technology will shrink the weight and size of the emerging radio system.
The significant advantages of Chen 麻豆精品 S檚 disruptive technology have created interest from wireless and semiconductor industries. Chen says that when installing a current antenna array high onto a base station, oftentimes a helicopter or heavy lifting equipment is needed.
麻豆精品 S淚f we can get rid of magnetic circulators, then we can very much minimize the size and weight of this antenna array, 麻豆精品 S� he says. 麻豆精品 S淪o, workers can just carry it on their back as they install it 麻豆精品 S� saving the overall cost and improving labor efficiency and safety. 麻豆精品 S�
Chen 麻豆精品 S檚 NSF project will establish the theoretical foundation and practical design methodologies for the proposed technology. He will demonstrate the effectiveness of his proposal using prototypes that mimic the advanced antenna array system within an anechoic, or echo-free, chamber at UCF.
Chen will be working with his research group and the UCF INSPIRE Lab. His team will also provide outreach programs to K-12 students with videos and lectures about wireless technology.
Chen earned his doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University in 2013 and worked in the industry before joining UCF in 2018. He credits the four years he spent in the wireless semiconductor sector for fueling his excitement toward developing new research.
麻豆精品 S淚 can foresee that this research will be wildly exciting and enable knowledge for the future 6G systems featured as joint communication and radar, 麻豆精品 S� Chen says. 麻豆精品 S淏eyond the technological frontiers, it will address the nation 麻豆精品 S檚 core interests in spectrum sustainability and ubiquitous coverage of high-speed connectivity and lead to economic benefits in the future. 麻豆精品 S�
Harnessing the Sun 麻豆精品 S檚 Energy Through Electric Vehicles
Zhaomiao (Walter) Guo
Department of Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering
Project Title: A Decentralized Optimization Framework for Next-Gen Transportation and Power Systems with Large-scale Transportation Electrification
Award: $525,781
Using the increasing number of electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads as an advantage, civil, environmental and construction engineering Assistant Professor Walter Guo 麻豆精品 S檚 project will couple two important infrastructure systems 麻豆精品 S� transportation and power 麻豆精品 S� to contribute to a more sustainable future.
Guo is currently building a network model that will examine EVs to capture and store solar energy, which can then be transferred into a power system as the EV replenishes its own battery supply 麻豆精品 S� creating a bidirectional flow of power.
Guo, who is also a part of UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Resilient, Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems faculty cluster initiative and center, says his ultimate research goal is to introduce more clean energy into the power and transportation systems in a cost-effective way.
While Guo 麻豆精品 S檚 model will rely on his computational and engineering expertise, the outcome is largely dependent on the adoption of the system by transportation departments, utility companies and industry partners, including individuals who own EVs.
麻豆精品 S淓V and solar technologies are going to have a large market penetration in the next 10 or 20 years, 麻豆精品 S� Guo says. 麻豆精品 S淎nd when we 麻豆精品 S檙e able to get these two technologies to work together, it will completely change both systems. 麻豆精品 S� Guo is looking forward to broadly collaborate with the stakeholders, including Florida Department of Transportation, utility companies and the City of Orlando to enable this paradigm shift.
麻豆精品 S淲hen the EVs provide support during an outage, they can potentially help recover the power system 麻豆精品 S檚 critical loads, allowing the power system startup to be easier, 麻豆精品 S� Guo says.
Guo 麻豆精品 S檚 study will also incorporate key concepts in game theory to explore how the average EV owner may adopt the model if given rewards, such as monetary incentives.
麻豆精品 S淚t 麻豆精品 S檚 a cyclical process, 麻豆精品 S� he says. 麻豆精品 S淏y providing incentives to the EV owners, we essentially reduce the ownership costs for them. So eventually, it will promote the adoption of EVs that in turn, will enable the integration of solar or renewable energy in power systems. 麻豆精品 S�
To quantify the value of providing a certain amount of energy back into the power system, Guo will consider various factors like time, vehicle use and cases where the demand for power is high, such as during a power outage due to a natural disaster.
麻豆精品 S淲hen the EVs provide support during an outage, they can potentially help recover the power system 麻豆精品 S檚 critical loads, allowing the power system startup to be easier, 麻豆精品 S� Guo says.
Since the time he was working as a transportation engineer in 2012 to his postdoctoral assignment in 2018 where he investigated the power transmission and distribution networks for EVs, Guo 麻豆精品 S檚 career path has led him straight to this project.
Over the past five years, Guo 麻豆精品 S檚 team of collaborators, which includes students, have played a major role in developing the preliminary results needed to receive the NSF CAREER grant.
麻豆精品 S淭he idea of our contribution is to seamlessly integrate the transportation system with the energy system, 麻豆精品 S� he says. 麻豆精品 S淚 hope to carry forward this research direction to a broader context that fundamentally improves sustainability and resilience. 麻豆精品 S�
Modeling Heart Mechanics at the Microscale
Luigi Perotti
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Title: How Does the Heart Contract? A Microstructure-Based Approach to Understand Cardiac Function and Dysfunction
Award: $520,769
Mechanical and aerospace engineering Assistant Professor Luigi Perotti 麻豆精品 S檚 project will develop a computational model capable of relating observable macroscopic motion in the heart, such as a cardiac contraction, to its causes at the cellular and tissue levels.
By linking cellular and tissue level mechanics to heart function in health and disease, Perotti 麻豆精品 S檚 work can inform investigations of how localized and more widespread abnormalities contribute to cardiac dysfunction across scales.
麻豆精品 S淚f we can link the micro and macroscales more accurately, then we can improve diagnosis and treatment because we can have a more precise, causal link between the changes that happened in the heart, 麻豆精品 S� Perotti says.
麻豆精品 S淚f we can link the micro and macroscales more accurately, then we can improve diagnosis and treatment…” Perotti says.
To build, test and improve their models, Perotti and his team in the Computational Biomechanics Lab, will use existing literature and acquired magnetic resonance imaging data, like those from Cardiac Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Displacement Encoding with Stimulated Echoes Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or DENSE MRI.
The multiscale computational models will be compared with this experimental data to connect deformation at the cellular and microstructural levels to motion measurable at the tissue and ventricle scales.
麻豆精品 S淲e hope that our results based on microstructural models and imaging data can suggest new quantitative biomarkers to quantify cardiac motion, 麻豆精品 S� Perotti says.
The project will also include outreach to students from local schools to inspire their interest in science, engineering and healthcare.
麻豆精品 S淪tudents will be able to hold basic heart models in their hands to understand how the myofiber organizes in a helical structure across the wall and understand how this helical structure is important for cardiac contraction, 麻豆精品 S� Perotti says.
For Perotti, his heart has always been intrigued by coding and biology. His research as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, initially focused on analyzing the maturation of spherical viral shells and how to model their change in shape. However, after his mentor invited him to join a cardiac electrophysiology project, Perotti 麻豆精品 S檚 interest in the complex studies of the heart with medical experts intensified.
Since joining UCF in 2019, he continues projects with faculty and students, and says he enjoys the collaborative opportunities the university offers.
麻豆精品 S淔rom the time I interviewed for this position, I always had the impression that UCF is very energetic and there is a strong push to grow together, 麻豆精品 S� he says.
