NSF Supports Early-Career Faculty
This year’s College of Engineering NSF CAREER Awardees are assistant professors (from left) Ronald Reano and Atilla Eryilmaz, both electrical and computer engineering; Feng Qin, computer science and engineering; and John Lenhart, civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science. (Photo by Kevin Fitzsimons)The National Science Foundation has recognized four College of Engineering faculty members with grants to assist them in conducting research.
Assistant professors John Lenhart, civil and environmental engineering and geodetic science; Atilla Eryilmaz and Ronald Reano, both electrical and computer engineering; and Feng Qin, computer science and engineering, all received Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) awards, the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.
Lenhart received a $400,234 CAREER grant for research to improve computer models used to predict the movement of heavy metals in soils as well as assess the potential of whether nanoparticle migration in soils could pose a risk to human health or the environment. In his project, “Natural Organic Matter Mediated Processes in the Subsurface: Heavy Metal Adsorption and Nanoparticle Migration,” Lenhart will investigate how natural organic matter — formed in soil and water systems through natural biological and chemical processes — will affect the chemical behavior of lead, one of the most often measured contaminants in soils, and will impact the transport of nanoparticles through soils.
Eryilmaz’s $462,716 grant will support his research on “Theoretical Foundations for Wireless Network Algorithm Design: Satisfying Short-Term and Long-Term Application Requirements.” Eryilmaz and his research group will help develop the theory and methodologies for the systematic design of efficient and practical communication protocols that can serve a variety of essential applications. Such protocols are paramount for the satisfactory operation of many future-generation wireless networks, including both commercial and military networks expected to serve a wide range of applications with diverse performance requirements imposed by entertainment-based, healthcare, rescue-related, security and automated control applications.
Reano was awarded $400,000 for “Creating a New Class of Organic-Inorganic Dispersion Engineered RF-Optical Modulators.” Reano’s research objective is to efficiently convert high-frequency electrical signals into the optical domain using planar lightwave circuits. Combining the advantages of optics and electronics in hybrid systems addresses concurrent demands for greater bandwidth and mobility, thereby impacting the networking, computing, and sensing industries.
Qin’s $420,000 CAREER award supports his research entitled “Building Immunity to Memory Management Bugs during Production Runs.” This project will explore novel ways to mitigate memory management bugs, a major category of common software defects. Qin aims to employ a systemic approach for providing immunity to memory bugs during productions runs by performing online diagnosis once a memory bug or failure is detected, then generate and apply runtime immune patches to the running program for surviving and preventing memory bug occurrences or failures.
