The Building Preeminent Teams process is part of the College of Engineering’s strategic growth plan, which will add as many of 107 faculty over five years. In addition to the team hiring, other hires are related to strengthening disciplines and taking advantage of opportunities to enhance quality and diversity.

Engineering’s strategic growth plan is part of Purdue Moves, a range of initiatives designed to broaden Purdue’s global impact and enhance educational opportunities for students.

“The Preeminent Teams are a research-centric approach to faculty hiring,” says Leah Jamieson, the John A. Edwardson Dean of Engineering. “We asked the candidates to tell us how they would form a team to catapult their research to the level of international prominence. That was the starting point for choosing the first-year teams.”

Questions asked include what faculty expertise and infrastructure exists at Purdue and what is still needed to maximize the potential for success in this area.

These investment areas are being developed through a public process akin to that where entrepreneurs pitch a proposal to venture capitalists. The process is part of the college’s ongoing theme of bringing characteristics of the entrepreneurial world to the research world.

The teams, chosen from among 32 that competed in the fall of 2013, were selected because their work has the potential for dramatic impact and international preeminence.

“The successful teams showed agility, creativity, a willingness to take risks and an ability to move outside their comfort zones,” Jamieson says.

In each issue of Discovery: Innovation@Purdue Engineering, we will highlight the research being done by Preeminent Teams. In this edition, we report on the Flexible and Efficient Spectrum Usage team led by David Love, professor of electrical and computer engineering. Team members include William Chappell, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Edward Delp, the Charles William Harrison Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a professor of biomedical engineering; and James Krogmeier, professor of electrical and computer engineering.

The 2013-14 Preeminent Teams

Implantable Networks of Wireless Nanoelectronic Nodes Will Catalyze a Paradigm Shift in Medical Treatment

Wireless implantable devices are being developed for various potential applications including monitoring and suppression of epileptic seizures; prosthesis control for injured military personnel; modulation of cardiac arrhythmias; treatment of depression; treatment of gastroparesis, a partial paralysis of the stomach; and monitoring of intraocular pressure and therapeutic intervention for glaucoma. The research calls for a partnership among the Center for Implantable Devices with the National Science Foundation NEEDS (Nano-Engineered Electronic Device Simulation) initiative led by Mark Lundstrom, the Goodman Campbell Brain and Spine neurosurgical practice and the Indiana University School of Medicine.

Team leader

Pedro Irazoqui, associate professor of biomedical engineering and associate professor of electrical and computer engineering

Team members

Ashraf Alam, professor of electrical and computer engineering
William Chappell, professor of electrical and computer engineering
Mark Lundstrom, the Don and Carol Scifres Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Energetic Materials: Science, Engineering, Sensing, and Detection for Defense and Security Applications

New methods to study energetic materials, including explosives, propellants and pyrotechnics, for applications largely focused on national defense and security. Researchers are working to characterize, detect and defeat existing and emerging energetic materials and to develop new and improved materials for military applications. The primary driver is in homeland security environments, work that aims to transform the way that explosives screening is performed, allowing the implementation of arrays of complementary sensors designed to detect and track explosives when they are at large distances from intended targets. Some technologies being developed will analyze the spectrum of light shining through vaporized samples. Others will analyze solid residues. The research includes work focusing on detecting traces of explosives, characterizing homemade explosives so that their threat can be better assessed, and using CT and other scanners to detect and identify bulk explosives in containers such as luggage and cargo cases.

Team leader

Stephen Beaudoin, professor of chemical engineering

Team members

Bryan Boudouris, assistant professor of chemical engineering
Charles Bouman, the Showalter Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Wayne Chen, professor of aeronautics and astronautics and professor of materials engineering
Jeffrey Rhoads, associate professor of mechanical engineering
Steven Son, professor of mechanical engineering

Quantum Photonics

Quantum photonics could make possible future quantum information systems far more powerful than today’s computers. The technology hinges on using single photons — the tiny particles that make up light — for switching and routing in future computers that might harness the exotic principles of quantum mechanics. The quantum information processing technology would use structures called “metamaterials,” artificial nanostructured media. The metamaterials, when combined with tiny optical emitters, could make possible a new hybrid technology that uses quantum light in future computers. Computers based on quantum physics would have quantum bits, or qubits, that exist in both the on and off states simultaneously, dramatically increasing the computer’s power and memory. Quantum computers would take advantage of a strange phenomenon described by quantum theory called entanglement. Instead of only the states of one and zero, there are many possible entangled quantum states in between one and zero. Other important quantum information applications include, for example, a quantum internet, secure information, quantum simulators, atomic clocks, ultra-powerful sensors, quantum cryptography and teleportation.

Team leader

Vladimir Shalaev, the Robert and Anne Burnett Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Team members

Chris Greene, the Albert Overhauser Distinguished Professor of Physics
Andrew Weiner, the Scifres Family Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Collaborators

Alexandra Boltasseva, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering
Yong Chen, associate professor of physics
Gary Cheng, associate professor of industrial engineering and professor of mechanical engineering
Young Kim, associate professor of biomedical engineering
Evgenii Narimanov, professor of electrical and computer engineering
Minghao Qi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering
Xianfan Xu, the James J. and Carol L. Shuttleworth Professor of Mechanical Engineering