Microelectronics
Insulating computer components better improves computer performance, reduces wear
Lynn Loo, assistant professor of chemical engineering at UT, is using her 2004 National Science Foundation (NSF) Early Career Development (CAREER) Award to research new materials that can be used in the next generation of microelectronic applications. Loo's group proposes to create a material that better insulates the wires that interconnect individual components of a computer chip. Her work will focus on developing low-k dielectric, plastic materials having nanoscale features.
Photo: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/action_shots/pages/loo.cfm
Improving plastics on the move to help computers part makers
Using a 2004 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Venkat Ganesan, assistant professor of chemical engineering seeks to improve understanding of advanced polymers subjected to movement. Because many industrial applications require plastics to perform as moving parts, which often changes their structures and/or properties and renders them ineffective, Ganesan's work will seek to avoid these problems. Ganesan will also help develop strategies to use the movement to intentionally manipulate the polymers' structure and properties. "This research is a marriage between thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, topics that have very rarely intersected in their three centuries of existence, thereby making it an extremely challenging issue," says Ganesan. Advanced polymers play an important role in the construction of many everyday devices, including microelectronics, CDs, DVDs and batteries.
Photo: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/action_shots/pages/NSFCareer.cfm
Developing wireless sensors uses ranging from tracking pollutants to personalized indoor climates
Using a 2004 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award from the National Science Foundation, Dr. Sanjay Shakkottai, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering will begin the early steps for creating large networks of sensors that transmit information wirelessly. "From tasks like tracking chemical pollutants through a riverbed to creating individualized climates within buildings, sensor network technology will transform the way we interact and understand the physical world," says Shakkottai.
Shakkottai's work will make possible the next generation of sensor devices that gather information. Instead of collecting information one sensor at a time, Shakkottai and his group will observe fluctuations in a continuous medium of sensor nodes to glean information. "Such networks will support communications over thousands of sensor nodes-communications of a scale not seen in today's networks," he says.
Combining these large networks will first require the creation of a framework for sensor network algorithms (step-by-step procedures) and architecture. Shakkottai hopes his networks make possible conveniences like personalized climates inside buildings that "follow" individuals throughout their travels around the building. He also foresees networks of sensors placed in soil to communicate levels of pollution, runoff, etc.
Photo: http://www.engr.utexas.edu/news/action_shots/pages/NSFCareer.cfm