Research

The department's larger scale research focal areas include various components of renewable/sustainable energy with emphases on smart grid, grid integration and wind turbine technologies; bioengineering with an emphasis on small-scale biosensors and actuators; and autonomous systems with an emphasis on control systems.

Our department has research expertise in four broad areas.

A graduate student looks through a microscope in the background while another student in the foreground puts samples in a fume hood

Biomedical engineering and biosensor research

Faculty conducting research in this area: 

Professor Jihwan Yoon in the anechoic chamber

Electromagnetics and imaging research

Faculty conducting research in this area: 

Two graduate students work on a power grid simulator

Sustainable energy and smart grid research

Faculty conducting research in this area: 

Professor Hao Xu and a graduate student hold a large aerial robot behind netting with another student, seen from behind, looks at them

Unmanned autonomous systems research

Faculty conducting research in this area: 

Research labs

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  • Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory
    • Primary Contact: Indira Chatterjee
    • Major Focus: Bioeffects of radiofrequency, microwave and millimeter wave electromagnetic fields on cells and tissue; design of microwave and millimeter wave exposure systems; numerical and experimental dosimetry; high-intensity nanoelectric pulse effects on cells; clinical applications of electromagnetic fields
  • Bioinstrumentation and Automation Laboratory
    • Primary Contact: Yantao Shen
    • Major Focus: Bioinstrumentation and automation, sensors and actuators, bio-mechatronics, smart assistive and neurorehabilitation interfaces
    • Equipment: Sensorized Bio Manipulation platform (SBM), including a Sutter automated micromanipulator MPC-385-2; an Olympus BX51 research microscope system with integrated fluorescent imaging sub-system, long working distance objective lens, and Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) sub-system; and a high performance QICAM vision and analysis system
  • Electric Drives Laboratory
    • Primary Contacts: Poria Fajri and Andrzej Trzynadlowski
    • Major Focus: Control of electric motors, power electronics, characterization of electric machines; adjustable DC and 1 & 3 phase AC voltages; electric-drive vehicle simulations
    • Equipment: Digital oscilloscopes TDS 1002, 2012C and 340A from Tektronix; digitalizing oscilloscope 54501A from Hewlett-Packard; signal generator HP 8656B from Hewlett Packard; Spectrum Analyzer HP 35665A from Hewlett Packard; microcontroller and DSP development kits from Motorola (MPC565) and Texas Instruments (TMC320F243); Power electronic inverters, VLT5032 (40 hp) and VLT5005 (5 hp), from Danfoss; non-Contact torquemeter MCRT 4800V, 8000 rpm, 5000 lb.in from S. Himmelstein; three-phase induction motor, 230 V, 40 hp, 60 Hz, 6 poles; DC generator, 240 V, 40 hp, 1750 r/min, with a 180 V, 5 A exciter and 1 hp cooling blower; CompactRIO real-time embedded industrial controller with FPGA capability from National Instruments; Liquid-cooled 135 kW, 7700 rpm, brushless permanent magnet motor and inverter from UQM Technologies; 384 V battery cabinet series 1085 with 300 Amp breaker from Eaton
  • Integrated Bio-Analytical System Laboratory
    • Primary Contact: Xiaoshan Zhu
    • Major Focus: Bioanalysis methods, Biosensors, BioMEMS.
    • Equipment: Permanent DI water system, one fume hood, a laminar flow hood, a large optics/electronics bench, two refrigerators, and two freezers (-20°C). The lab also has a Perkin Elmer Victor X microplate reader (fluorescent, luminescence and absorbance measurements), a HPLC system, a Bio Analytical Systems BAS 100 electrochemistry workstation, an Olympus microscope with CCD camera interfaced with computer, a microfluidics syringe pump with 10 channels, a lock-in amplifier, two centrifuge pumps, a CO2 incubator, a vacuum furnace, micropipettors, hot plates, vortexers, pH meters, electronics scales, function generators, and numerous mechanical tools needed for the biosensor development. Laboratory computers installed with LabView software. An electrochemical plating system is also available in the lab.
  • Intelligent Autonomous Systems Lab
    • Primary Contacts: Hao Xu and M. Sami Fadali
    • Major Focus: Intelligent design for autonomous systems, distributed control for multi-agent systems, resilient network and control co-design for cyber-physical systems
    • Equipment: OptiTrack Motion Capture Systems; DJI S1000; Parrort AR Drone; Parrot Bebop Drone; Parrot Mini Cargo Drone; Parrot Jumping Sumo unmanned ground vehicle; X8 skywalker fixed wing UAS; Configurable quadcopter; Infrared Camera; HD Camera; Pixhawk fly control system; Arduinos microprocessor
  • Electrical Power and Renewable Energy System Research Laboratory
    • Primary Contact: Hanif Livani
    • Major Focus: Analysis, protection, distribution and integration of various power system components including distributed renewable energy generation through the use of several ASPEN and other simulation programs at this laboratory
    • Equipment: One of the newest research facilities in the department, the lab accommodates 6 powerful Dell workstations each equipped with state-of-art large-scale electrical power grid simulation tools. Software programs available at EPRES are: EMTP-RV for power system electromagnetic transient simulations with a new visualization tool, PSCAD by Manitoba-HVDC Research Center for power system transient stability studies, PowerWorld for power system steady state applications with a powerful user interface and PSS/E for power system dynamic simulations. MATLAB with the complete list of toolboxes (Power System, Wavelets, System Identification, Optimization and etc.) is also available on each workstation.
  • RF Anechoic Chamber
    • Primary Contact: Derek Walton
    • Major Focus: Electromagnetic compliance measurements, antenna impedance, gain and pattern measurements to 20 GHz, near field scanning, transmission loss measurement