Faculty News

Two biomedical engineering department assistant professors received year 2000 Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation. They are Susan Hagness and Amit Lal. NSF established the awards to help scientists and engineers develop their contributions to research and education early in their careers.

Hagness will develop accurate and efficient computational electromagnetics algorithms for modeling the propagation of light in photonic microstructures. Hagness also recently received NSF's 2000 Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the nation's highest honor bestowed upon scientists in the early stages of their careers. Lal focuses on using ultrasonic pulses to address challenges in making MEMS more practical. Hagness and Lal are also members of the electrical and computer engineering department.

Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor Walter Block's proposal "High Speed Comprehensive MR Imaging Using Undersampled 3D Projection Trajectories and Real-Time Reconstruction" has been approved by The Whitaker Foundation for a young investigator research grant. The project will further design and refine MR acquisition strategies that dramatically reduce scan times through sparse data undersampling. These strategies will deliver flexible contrast for neurological, abdominal and cardiac imaging studies with isotropic resolution over large field of views. The project has the potential to substantially alter the way MR exams are prescribed, executed and evaluated.

Nimmi Ramanujam, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering, was awarded an American Cancer Society institutional research grant by the McArdle Center. Her grant is titled, "Biochemical and Biophysical Basis for the Difference in the Fluorescence Properties of Neoplastic and Non-neoplastic Tissues."

"Considerable progress has been made towards using the optical method, fluorescence spectroscopy to provide fast and non-invasive diagnosis of disease in tissue," said Ramanujum. "However, the diagnostically relevant information contained within a tissue spectrum has yet to be fully understood and exploited. This grant will develop and apply methods to elucidate the biochemistry and morphology of neoplastic and non-neoplastic tissue fluorescence."

Professor John Webster, electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering departments, has been awarded a 3-year, $675,000 grant by the National Institutes of Health. His research project is titled, "Electrode Design for Cardiac Tachyarrhythmia RF Ablation." Unwanted extra electrical conduction pathways in the heart cause high heart rate (tachycardia). An electrode on a catheter threaded through the vessels into the heart maps responses to electrical stimulation to locate the site.

Radio frequency (RF) current at 500 kHz through the same electrode causes Joule heating of the heart wall (myocardium). The pathways are heated to 50 degrees C (ablated) to form lesions that stop conduction. Heating is affected by thermal conduction and thermal convection, with excessive heating causing unwanted coagulum and steam formation. Webster's team is working to design improved large area, non-contact and needle electrodes to yield more uniform current density, more uniform heating, and larger lesion volume.

Assistant Professor David Beebe will lead a project funded by the National Science Foundation's new awards program designed to mold the future of information technology. The $450,000 award, titled "An Electrostatic Haptic Display for the Bisually Imparied," will be distributed over three years for the development of new non-textual material to improve computer access for people with visual impairments. Strategies include the development of tactile electrostatic cues that will help users navigate on the computer.

Professors Roderic Lakes and Ray Vanderby have received a $350,000 NSF grant to study ligament tissue. They will investigate the nonlinearly viscoelastic behavior of these soft connective tissues, with the long-range goal of improving ligament repair methods.

Professors Willis Tompkins and John Webster have received IEEE Millennium Medals. Both are faculty members in the electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering departments. As part of its celebration of the Third Millennium, the IEEE awarded the medals and certificates to selected members around the world in recognition and appreciation of valued services and outstanding contributions.