Jay Knepp, a computer engineering major, created the light level meter for which Purdue has received the 2020 APPA Effective and Innovative Practices Award. The portable light level meter has changed the way campus light levels are collected and analyzed and has been transformative for project planning within the department.

Electronics are increasingly being paired with optical systems, such as when accessing the internet on an electronically run computer through fiber optic cables. But meshing optics — which relies on particles of light called photons—with electronics—relying on electrons — is challenging, due to their disparate scales. Electrons work at a much smaller scale than light does. The mismatch between electronic systems and optical systems means that every time a signal converts from one to the other, inefficiency creeps into the system.

The Indy Autonomous Challenge will bring together collegiate teams from around the world next October to run autonomous race cars around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s famed 2.5-mile oval.

The National Academy of Inventors (NAI) has elected three Purdue ECE professors to NAI Fellow status. Alexandra Boltasseva, Ron and Dotty Garvin Tonjes Professor of ECE, Mung Chiang, the Roscoe H. George Distinguished Professor of ECE and the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering, and Haiyan Wang, Basil S. Turner Professor of Engineering, join 175 prolific academic innovators from across the world in the 2020 class of Fellows.

A hacker can reproduce a circuit on a chip by discovering what key transistors are doing in a circuit – but not if the transistor “type” is undetectable. Purdue University engineers have demonstrated a way to disguise which transistor is which by building them out of a sheet-like material called black phosphorus. This built-in security measure would prevent hackers from getting enough information about the circuit to reverse engineer it.

The Purdue DIRTS (Degradable and Intelligent Radio Transmitting Sensor) team won 10,000 euros and the opportunity to showcase their solution in front of representatives from key industry leaders, startups and institutions during a presentation in October.

Instead of inserting a card or scanning a smartphone to make a payment, what if you could simply touch the machine with your finger? A prototype developed by Purdue University engineers would essentially let your body act as the link between your card or smartphone and the reader or scanner, making it possible for you to transmit information just by touching a surface.

An important part of senior year for Purdue ECE students is senior design. Teams incorporate all of their previous coursework to take on a challenging engineering project. Students decide on a project and then design and test a system, component, or process to meet the goals they have set.

Stanley Chan, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and statistics, and Abhiram Gnanasambandam, a PhD student in ECE, have found a new way to break through the high dynamic range imaging problem using single-photon image sensors.

Gerhard Klimeck, professor of electrical and computer engineering, has been elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Election as an AAAS fellow is a lifetime honor bestowed upon AAAS members by their peers. This year, 489 members have been awarded this distinction.