How nationally recognized UAlbany junior researchers are helping us to better understand ourselves, the world, and to making it more accessible
UAlbany’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) is one of the youngest and most vibrant engineering and computer science schools in the United States.
As part of a comprehensive, engaged, public R1 research university, the College was established in July 2015 by building upon legacy programs in computer science. In five short years, CEAS has launched six new engineering programs, with two more currently undergoing the New York State approval process.
The College’s programmatic development has occurred simultaneously with robust growth in research, with expenditures rising nearly 300% between 2018 to 2019 and dramatically increasing every year since its inception.
Leading the way is a group of brilliant junior faculty who have been recognized with prestigious, highly competitive national awards. For the third year in a row, one of our faculty members received a National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) Award, while another faculty member was honored with a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Early Career Faculty Award, amassing more than $2 million in funding between them.
Mariya Zheleva (2019) and Daphney-Stavroula Zois (2020) are the most recent CEAS scientists to receive the highly competitive CAREER Award, NSF’s most prestigious honor for junior faculty members who are conducting innovative research at the frontiers of science and technology that is relevant to the mission of NSF and community service demonstrated through scientific leadership, education, or community outreach.
As described by NSF, these awards “foster innovative developments in science and technology, increase awareness of careers in science and engineering, give recognition to the scientific missions of the participating agencies, enhance connections between fundamental research and national goals, and highlight the importance of science and technology for the Nation’s future.”
Zheleva conducts research in next generation mobile wireless networks. Since 2015, she has been working with rural communities in upstate New York to substantially improve emergency preparedness and response. Her work also spotlights the need to develop innovative ways to provide technological resources to distant communities around the world.
Zheleva’s award, which came with a grant of $510,494, is being used to develop a long-term, integrated program of research, education and outreach to establish a scientific and technological framework for automated spectrum measurement in support of shared-spectrum access. Her project is titled “Automating the Measurement and Management of the Radio Spectrum for Future Spectrum-Sharing Applications.”
Zheleva, an assistant professor of Computer Science and director of the UBiNET Lab, is one of only 16 faculty SUNY-wide (out of approximately 35,000 on 64 campuses) to be awarded with this distinction in 2019. She also broke a new barrier as the first female NSF CAREER Award winner in the College, as well as in the Department of Computer Science since its founding in 1968. Read more.
Zois’ award of $524,480 supports her work on cyber-physical-human systems. From implantable cardioverter defibrillators to self-driving cars, the interaction of humans and computer systems continues to evolve at a frenzied pace. Zois’ project, “Towards Optimized Operation of Cost-Constrained Complex Cyber-Physical-Human Systems,” seeks to expand our understanding of the operation of systems that integrate engineering with the natural world and humans to improve our daily activities.
Complex-Cyber-Physical-Human Systems (CPHS) involve a series of interconnected systems
(i.e., computers, physical devices) and people communicating and interacting with one another over small or vast distances. Some examples include self-driving cars or home assistants. CPHS are also able to share information with other systems and data streams to improve functionality, perform maintenance or send an alert when a medical emergency is in progress.
Zois’ project focuses on wireless body area networks (WBANs). These networks connect
independent sensors that may be situated on clothing, on the body, or under the skin of an
individual, and are used for various applications, including remote health monitoring.
Zois is an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the IMAgINE Lab. Read more.
Mustafa Aksoy is the recipient of a 2019 NASA Early Career Faculty Award and a grant of $446,179, which he is using to improve the agency’s nanosatellite capabilities. He was selected through the agency’s Space Technology Research Grants program as part of a prestigious group of nine researchers to lend their expertise and help to identify and improve NASA’s current technological capabilities.
Aksoy’s project, “Adaptive Calibration of CubeSat Radiometer Constellations,” involves finding easier ways to calibrate large constellations of CubeSats – a class of spacecraft known as nanosatellites – that can be used to measure everything from moisture in soil on Earth to surface temperatures on the Moon. Aksoy will use machine-learning algorithms to improve CubeSat capabilities.
Aksoy’s research could potentially advance NASA’s next era of exploration – the Artemis program – which is charged with advancing technologies, developing new systems, and testing capabilities that will be critical for crewed missions to Mars.
Aksoy is an assistant professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Microwave Remote Sensing Lab. Read more.
These three projects highlight how UAlbany junior researchers are leading the way to a better understanding of our world through space technologies, ourselves through advancements in cyber-physical-human systems, and making it all accessible through innovative ways that improve next generation wireless technologies.
Each project also includes strong components for fostering actively engaged student research and learning opportunities as well as real-world service to the public, which is consistent with the CEAS mission of providing “Science in Service to Society.”
Zheleva’s students visit the field with her and assist her in the development and testing of apps. She also delivers lectures at local public libraries for middle school students and their families and hosts an annual summer school in which she introduces undergraduates to various mobile technologies and trains them to build and measure networks. Zois plans to provide opportunities for underrepresented K-12 students in the City of Albany to explore STEM fields from the lens of CPHS by taking part in project-based school visits and hands-on workshops. She is also introducing CPHS concepts and activities into existing UAlbany courses. Aksoy’s students are building a CubeSat that will eventually be launched into space, thanks to the generosity of a UAlbany alumnus.
Previous NSF CAREER Award recipients from UAlbany include Won Namgoong (2002), professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Siwei Lyu (2010), professor of Computer Science; and Jeong-Hyon Hwang (2012) and Feng Chen (2018), associate professors of Computer Science.
Namgoong, who serves as associate dean for research at CEAS, received his award for the study of high-performance ultra-wideband radio design.
Lyu’s CAREER Award to develop new methods to detect altered or faked digital images has led to additional funding through the National Science Foundation.
Hwang’s NSF CAREER award was used in the development of G*, a system capable of compressing dynamic graph data based on commonalities among the graphs in the series for “deduplicated” storage on multiple servers.
Chen’s project is entitled “SPARK: A Theoretical Framework for Discovering Complex Patterns in Big Attributed Networks.”
More about the projects highlighted in this article can be found at:
- Dr. Mariya Zheleva’s 2019 NSF CAREER Award
- Dr. Daphney-Stavroula Zois’ 2020 NSF CAREER Award
- Dr. Mustafa Aksoy’s 2019 NASA Career Faculty Award
Banner photo provided by NASA on Unsplash. Used with permission.