Data, Decisions and Control News

Focus on new faculty: Kangwook Lee uses deep learning to solve its own problems

Kangwook Lee, a new GIE Fellow and assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, uses information coding to improve understanding and performance of machine learning across large-scale systems.

Chicago Quantum Exchange Profile: Jennifer Choy

WQI’s Jennifer Choy was recently featured as part of a series of profiles of scientists and engineers from across the Chicago Quantum Exchange member institutions. This post was originally published by CQE.  Jennifer Choy is an …

Using the Ancient Art of Kirigami to Make an Eyeball-like Camera

Cunjiang Yu, Bill D. Cook Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston, is reporting the development of a camera with a curvy, adaptable imaging sensor that could improve image quality in endoscopes, night-vision …

Tiny ‘ice cube tray’ could help restore sight

US researchers have developed a new scaffold that could help with the implantation of photoreceptors grown from stem cells Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have tackled the challenge of delivering photoreceptors to the retina …

Papailiopoulos receives 2021 UW–Madison Distinguished Teaching Award

Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professor Dimitris Papailiopoulos is among the 13 University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty members chosen to receive 2021 Distinguished Teaching Awards, an honor given out since 1953 to recognize the university’s finest educators. Papailiopoulos received the …

NSF CAREER Award will help Thompson build a better calorimeter

In nanoscale devices—such as the nanometer-sized transistors that make up computer microprocessors—tiny heat currents can have a big effect on those devices’ performance. To measure heat currents, researchers use a technique called calorimetry. Due to …

Micro-molded ‘ice cube tray’ scaffold is next step in returning sight to injured retina

Tens of millions of people worldwide are affected by diseases like macular degeneration or have had accidents that permanently damage the light-sensitive photoreceptors within their retinas that enable vision. The human body is not capable …

Thoma selected as AIME Honorary Member

Dan Thoma, professor of materials science and engineering and director of the Grainger Institute for Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was recently selected as a 2021 Honorary Member of AIME. Thoma was chosen by the board of TMS, …

2021 Vilas Associates Competition awardees announced

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education has announced 23 faculty winners of the Vilas Associates Competition. The Vilas Associates Competition recognizes new and ongoing research of the highest quality and significance. …

Research effort driving advances to combat traumatic brain injuries

Many concussions don’t produce noticeable symptoms, leaving them likely to go undiagnosed and putting the injured at increased risk for lasting complications like brain damage. A team of researchers led by University of Wisconsin–Madison mechanical engineer Christian …

UW–Madison to Continue Fundamental Data Science Research with Phase II Award from NSF

University of Wisconsin–Madison data scientists are harnessing big data and laying the foundations for major advances in data-rich applications thanks to a five-year, $4.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The team at UW–Madison …

Fall Research Competition continues to support researchers, graduate students

Despite a year full of uncertainty, University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers can still count on the Fall Research Competition. The annual contest offers funding for select research projects across each faculty division — biological sciences, physical sciences, social sciences and …

UW–Madison named member of new $25 million Midwest quantum science institute

As joint members of a Midwest quantum science collaboration, the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and the University of Chicago have been named partners in a National Science Foundation Quantum Leap …

Computerized Tomography Acquisition

The acquisition of a highly flexible Computerized Tomography (CT) X-ray System has added a powerful research instrument to the College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The 465 KeV (Kilo-electron-volt) system is capable of X-ray imaging …

Hu receives National Science Foundation nanoscale interactions grant

The National Science Foundation’s Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental and Transport Systems recently extended a Nanoscale Interactions Program grant for UW-Madison Materials Science and Engineering Assistant Professor and Grainger Institute for Engineering Fellow Jiamian Hu. Hu serves as principal investigator …

American Family Insurance Data Science Institute awards “mini grants” to advance data science

MADISON — Nine teams of University of Wisconsin–Madison faculty and collaborators have been awarded nearly $1 million through the American Family Funding Initiative, a research competition for data science projects. Brian Yandell “The American Family Insurance …

Investigating Challenges and Opportunities in Data Science

Critical advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have been accelerated by experts in the College of Engineering. With the launch of a new impact area in Machine Learning and Optimization, Rob Nowak, Professor of …

INVESTIGATING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN DATA SCIENCE

  Critical advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence have been accelerated by experts in the College of Engineering. With the launch of a new impact area in Machine Learning and Optimization, Rob Nowak, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, …

Stephan Rudykh Could Develop Remote Control of Soft Robots

Soft materials, such as rubber or polymers that can endure drastic changes to their shape, are promising for applications where flexibility and shapeshifting abilities are paramount. For example, these materials can be used to create …

Discovery led by Dakotah Thompson Brings Nanoscale Thermal Switches Needed for Next-Gen Computing

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Researchers working on an Army project developed nanoscale thermal switches that are key to thermal management of nanoscale devices, refrigeration, data storage, thermal computing and heat management of buildings. The …

Focus on new faculty: Dakotah Thompson, probing thermal transport at the nanoscale

As advances in nanotechnology have exploded in recent years, it’s increasingly important to understand the underlying physics in nanoscale systems in order to enhance the performance and efficiency of devices. For example, the microprocessors that …

New Faculty Focus: Engineering welcomes 12

The UW–Madison College of Engineering has added 12 new faculty members this academic year, with expertise ranging from fusion energy to quantum systems to the earth’s energy. Meet the new faculty members, and learn about …

Neural Connections Across Campus

UW-Madison professor Aviad Hai is developing tiny electronic sensors to study brain activity using MRI. A magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner can be used to take detailed anatomical snapshots of the brain noninvasively — without …

American Family Insurance and UW–Madison: Queuing up quantum computing research

GIE Board Member Glenn Fung, chief research scientist in machine learning and director of data science research at American Family Insurance, is excited about the collaboration between UW-Madison and American Family.   As the field …

Ludwig lands $2 million grant as part of NIH effort to combat opioid abuse

Kip Ludwig will lead a more than $2 million NIH grant to test a novel liquid metal electrode as an alternative means of treating chronic back pain. “Right now there is a huge market for …

Hai lands NIH grant to use new brain sensors to study epileptic seizures

Aviad Hai, GIE Fellow and Assistant Professor of biomedical engineering, will use a new grant to develop sensors for brain imaging to provide new insights into brain seizures in epilepsy.

Focus on new faculty: Kangwook Lee uses deep learning to solve its own problems

Kangwook Lee, a new GIE Fellow and assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, uses information coding to improve understanding and performance of machine learning across large-scale systems.

Target acquired: Using magnets to help medicines deliver a more powerful punch

GIE Fellow Jiamian Hu is part of a team that hopes to reduce the side effects of medicines and boost their efficacy by delivering them only to their intended targets within the body. His research …

Hands-on learning in the Rockwell Automation lab

Not many undergraduates have the chance to get their hands on top-of-the-line industrial control equipment. But in late-spring 2019, University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering juniors and seniors in the class Computer Control of Machines and Processes (ME …

Focus on new faculty: Jennifer Choy, taking precision to new levels with quantum systems

Extremely precise quantum sensors promise to be a transformative technology with a variety of potential applications. For example, quantum sensors could advance neuroimaging by allowing researchers to detect nanoscale changes in electromagnetic fields in the …

Papailiopoulos earns NSF CAREER Award: What can cellphone clarity teach machine learning?

“For applications that involve human lives you want to be very confident in the decisions these predictive models make,” says Dimitris Papailiopoulos, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. …

Aviad Hai on Probes for Directly Recording Neural Activity | ApplySci @ Stanford

Watch Aviad Hai’s talk from the Wearable Tech + Digital Health + Neurotech Silicon Valley Conference that was held at Stanford University on February 21 & 22, 2019.

Dimitris Papailiopoulos earns Sony innovation award

Sony, the multinational electronics, entertainment and financial services corporation, honored Electrical and Computer Engineering Assistant Professor Dimitris Papailiopoulos with a faculty innovation award for distributed deep learning. The award is designed to accelerate and expand the creation of new …

Accelerating materials development to advance clean energy production

A group of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has received a $1.8 million grant to develop new materials for multiple uses, including the ability to withstand the corrosive environment within a molten salt nuclear reactor. The …

Automatic, and Anything but Ordinary: Partnership with Rockwell Prepares Engineers to Excel

Thanks to a partnership with industrial automation giant Rockwell Automation, engineering students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison can get their hands on today’s most advanced industrial manufacturing technologies. That’s one reason the Rockwell Automation Industrial …

ML4MI Pilot Research Grant Winners Announced

The UW’s Machine Learning for Medical Imaging Initiative (ML4MI) selection committee recently announced the winners of the ML4MI Pilot Research Grants. These grants are expected to expand the scope of Machine Learning activity on campus …

Shiva Rudraraju Explores Materials to Make Metal 3D Printing a Reality in Manufacturing

In the global economy, manufacturing is a central pillar that drives innovation and competition. It’s a fast-growing sector and a vital source of opportunity, which has only increased since metal additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, …

Air Force-backed center to make machine learning more independent, predictable, secure

MADISON – Artificial intelligence has become so smart and commonplace that most people accept computer-generated restaurant recommendations or movie suggestions without blinking an eye. Underneath the virtual surface, however, much remains mysterious in the realm …

Robert Nowak Leads Machine Learning and Optimization Activities at the Grainger Institute for Engineering

WATCH: Nowak Leads Machine Learning for Medical Imaging Seminar

Watch this Machine Learning for Medical Imaging Seminar led by Rob Nowak!

Younghyun Kim aims to make our interconnected world a safer place

In our modern interconnected world, we rely on cyber infrastructure in our daily lives. We have phones, medical devices, and cars that are connected to the internet—and this rise of interconnectedness creates vulnerability. Younghyun Kim works to …

Focus on new faculty: Jiamian Hu, using computer models to improve materials for many applications

  For materials scientist Jiamian Hu, the culture of interdisciplinary research collaboration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is a major selling point for the university. “That’s actually one of the very important reasons that I wanted …

Focus on New Faculty: Shiva Rudraraju, Studying Mechanics and Morphology Evolution in Materials

In January 2017, Shiva Rudraraju will join the Department of Mechanical Engineering as an assistant professor. Also an affiliate of the college’s Grainger Institute for Engineering, Rudraraju comes from the University of Michigan, where he’s been a graduate …

Focus on New Faculty: Varun Jog, Mining Big Data for Big Attitudes

Varun Jog puts a modern spin on the old proverb “people are known by the company they keep” by applying advanced mathematical tools to analyze interpersonal connections within social networks. People’s social interactions dramatically shape how …

Focus on New faculty: Dimitris Papailiopoulos, Speeding Up Machine Learning Pipelines

The world of science and technology is currently being reshaped by machine learning. At the heart of machine learning are algorithms whose aim is to mimic the complex processes of human learning, but on a …