Electrical & Computer Engineering Research

This laboratory is used to design and develop instruments for studying and characterizing space plasmas found in the earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere. These instruments are integrated into sounding rocket payloads or satellites built for space weather experiments. Dr. Spencer is currently funded by NSF to develop RF instruments for space plasma measurements. He is also funded by NASA under the Undergraduate Student Instrument Program to build a complete Cubesat to launch and test a new Time Domain Impedance Probe (TDIP) to measure plasma properties in Low Earth Orbit. The laboratory operates a licensed 70cm two-way satellite ground station.

Research in this laboratory includes investigation of high-voltage/high-frequency breakdown in sub-atmospheric pressures applied to space and aerospace power systems. The characteristics of plasma generated during breakdown are being investigated to understand breakdown events and the effects of high frequency on breakdown. Equipment available includes a variety of high voltage power supplies, function generators, oscilloscopes, vacuum chambers in varying sizes and shapes, and vacuum pumps. Dr. Kirkici’s research has been funded by NASA, AFRL, NSF, AFOSR, and private companies.

This laboratory is used to conduct research and development of next generation antennas, design antennas and associated sub-systems, evaluate their performance, and suggest refinements. The lab acquired full wave electromagnetic analysis tools, such as Ansys HFSS and CST Microwave Studio, to model and characterize antennas. The laboratory has an Anritsu vector network analyzer for measurements up to 40 GHz, and several other instruments and fabrication tools. Research projects include millimeter-wave and microwave antennas for wireless communications and biomedical applications, circularly polarized antennas for satellite communications, adaptive antennas for future 5G wireless systems, reflect/transmit arrays, and frequency selective surfaces. Dr. Latif's research is funded by NIH, NASA, and NSF.

This research is in the field of high-speed computer networking, cloud computing and Internet-of-Things.

This laboratory is currently being used by graduate students to build robots. It contains several full size robots and some robot arms. Tools and instrumentation to conduct robotics research is included in the laboratory. Broad areas of dynamics and controls research with applications relating to robots (aerial and water-surface unmanned vehicle) are being investigated.