The UConn School of Engineering is pleased to announce that Dr. Bahram Javidi, Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, has been awarded the prestigious Joseph Fraunhofer Award / Robert M. Burley Prize from The Optical Society.

The award, given to one person in the country every year, was bestowed upon Javidi for his “seminal contributions to passive and active multi-dimensional imaging from nano- to micro- and macro-scales,” according to the award citation.

The award is one of a long line of accomplishments during his career, which include: Being named one of the top 160 engineers between the ages of 30-45 by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE); the Quantum Electronics and Optics Prize for Applied Aspects by the European Physical Society; the Dennis Gabor Award in Diffractive Wave Technologies from The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE); the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship; the Alexander von Humboldt Prize for senior US Scientists in all disciplines; the SPIE Technology Achievement Award; the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award; and the George Washington University Distinguished Alumni Scholar Award.

At UConn, he has received the American Association for University Professors (AAUP) Research Excellence Award; the University of Connecticut Board Of Trustees Distinguished Professor Award; the UConn Alumni Association Excellence in Research Award; and the Chancellor’s Research Excellence Award, among others.

He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA), Fellow of the European Optical Society (EOS), Fellow of The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE), Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IoP), and Fellow of The Society for Imaging Science and Technology (IS&T). Javidi has over 900 publications and 19 patents, some of which have been licensed by industry.

Javidi is also the director of the MOSIS Lab (Multidimensional Optical Sensing and Imaging Systems), which is focused on advancing the science and technology of imaging, by centering on the fields of optics, photonics, and computational algorithms and systems, from nano to macro scales. MOSIS works with, and finds solutions for, partners in the defense, manufacturing, healthcare, and cybersecurity industries.

Click here to learn more about the Joseph Fraunhofer Award / Robert M. Burley Prize from The Optical Society.

^{Dr. John Enderle and his wife, Laurie Enderle. (photo courtesy of Laurie Enderle)}

Originally by: Heidi Douglas, Director of Alumni Relations, UConn School of Engineering 

Professor Emeritus John D. Enderle, 65, of Ashford, CT passed away on April 2, 2018 after a long and courageous battle with pancreatic cancer.  A loving husband, father, brother, friend, colleague and mentor, Dr. Enderle enjoyed a long and illustrious career as a professor and inspirational leader, admired for his unfailing dedication and support for students, a legacy honored by his family establishing the John Enderle Fund memorial scholarship.

UConn Electrical and Computer Engineering department head from 1995-1997, John was founding director of the undergraduate Biomedical Engineering program in 1997. His passion for research and advising his students are storied with commendations describing him as “the greatest professor,” having a “major influence in my life over the past 20 years,” and “always had patience to help me pursue my goals.”

John earned his B.S., M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in Biomedical Engineering, and an M.E. degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He worked at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and was as a professor at North Dakota State University (NDSU) prior to joining UConn.

In addition to his teaching and research, John also served in many capacities for several professional societies, was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering, a former Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) Program Evaluator for Bioengineering Programs and member of the Engineering Accreditation Commission. He was Editor of the NSF Book Series on NSF Engineering Senior Design Projects to Aid Persons with Disabilities. At the time of his death, John was working on a fourth edition of his seminal undergraduate textbook for biomedical engineering, Introduction to Biomedical Engineering.

A particularly metaphorical tribute to John celebrates his passion for gardening. A painting by former student Dr. G. Alexander Korentis depicts an espalier apple tree with John’s name followed by all his Ph.D. students’ names in an upward succession of branches. The frame bears a plaque with a quote from Warren Buffett, “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

John Enderle planted a tree for all of his students.

 Donations may be made in memory of John Enderle to the “John Enderle Fund” in the UConn School of Engineering. Please make checks payable to: The UConn Foundation, Inc. and forward to the following address: 2390 Alumni Drive Unit 3206, Storrs, Connecticut 06269.

^{Illustration of network concept. A UConn researcher at the National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology is developing a ‘smart sensor network’ that is both energy-efficient and resilient, to track targets such as enemy submarines. (Getty Images)}

---

A team of UConn engineers is developing an energy-efficient “smart sensor network” to track targets of interest, such as the proximity of enemy submarines or ships to Navy vessels.

The U.S. Navy currently uses underwater Intelligence, Surveillance, & Reconnaissance (ISR) sensor networks that run on full power, which can be a problem for long-term operations. The more accurate the sensor, the more power they consume.

The sensor networks currently being used could consist of several multi-modal sensor nodes, called sensor buoys, where each node acts independently and contains a diverse sensor suite, a data-processing unit, a transmitter and receiver, and a GPS device. The sensor suite can be composed of different types of sensors to detect and track targets, such as underwater microphones and active sonars.

Traditionally, these sensor nodes operate on full power, running all devices simultaneously, but the batteries that power them typically burn out within a few days of operation,  just as cell phones suck up more power when running multiple operations. This causes sensing failures which, in turn, leads to holes in coverage and affects tracking performance.

This poses a challenge to the Navy, since it deploys thousands of acoustic sensor networks throughout the ocean, where battery replacement can be time-consuming or impossible.

To address the challenge, Shalabh Gupta, a UConn engineer and researcher at the National Institute for Undersea Vehicle Technology, devised the concept of a “smart sensor network” that is energy-efficient as well as resilient to failures.

 ^{Intelligent Energy-efficient Sensor Network. (Illustration by Hayley Joyal ’18 (SFA))}

In a smart sensor network, sensor nodes adapt their sensing modalities based on the information about the targets’ whereabouts. Thus, the nodes around the target, such as a ship or submarine, activate their high-power sensing devices to track the target accurately, pinpointing its location, velocity, and trajectory.

On the other hand, the nodes that are located farther away from the target cycle between low-power sensing and sleep states to minimize energy consumption while still remaining aware.

Thus, if a low-power sensor detects a target, the node switches to high-power sensing to track it. Similarly, the high-power sensing devices that are tracking the target predict the target’s trajectory and alert other sensors within range of the target’s path, so that they switch to high power. Once the target has passed outside of a sensor’s range, it reverts to low-power mode.

The smart sensor networks also provide resilience. If a few nodes in the network fail, then the nodes surrounding the hole in coverage formed by the failed nodes jointly optimize to expand their sensing ranges to cover the gap.

“These networks have to contain built-in, distributed intelligence,” says Gupta, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering.

His first research paper on the algorithm, coauthored by graduate student James Hare, was published online in IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics in August 2017.

With this advance, crews on ships and submarines will be able to track enemy watercraft with batteries that last about 60 to 90 percent longer, Gupta says.

Gupta’s lab has prototypes of the sensors for ground use, and has been talking with Navy personnel about using them for the underwater acoustic sensor network.  He is currently seeking funding to build underwater sensors.