Research Interests

See my senior projects page for descriptions of current senior project opportunities. Many of those projects also include masters thesis topics. At this time, I only accept MS students for the thesis option.

Current Research Interests:

Organic computing, complex systems, ubiquitous computing, and robotic architecture

I see complexity as a fundamental technical challenge to the design and deployment of trustworthy engineered systems, especially cyber-physical systems that have self-X capabilities like self-organization, self-modeling, and self-reconfiguration. My work, in collaboration with Kirstie L. Bellman and Christopher A. Landauer of The Aerospace Corporation, focuses on both the conceptual and systems engineering challenges posed by complexity. Further information on these topics can be found in the following conferences and on my publications page.

Self-organizing Real Time (SORT) systems: IEEE has initiated a yearly SORT workshop as part of the ISORC Symposia. The 2012 SORT workshop will be in mid-April in Shenzhen, China.
IEEE International Conference on Self-Adaptive and Self-Organizing Systems (SaSo): SaSo 2012 was in Lyon, France, 10-14 September 2012.
Organic Computing - Controlled Emergence Schloss Dagstuhl Seminar 06031 January 15 - 20, 2006.
Organic Computing - Controlled Self-Organization Schloss Dagstuhl Seminar 08141 March 30 - April 4, 2008.
Organic Computing - Design of Self-Organizing Systems Schloss Dagstuhl Seminar 11181 May 1-6, 2011.

Optical upconversion, modeling and simulation of the optical properties of solids

Optical spectroscopy of lanthanoid ions in solid hosts, solid-state lasers

Photonic devices and systems, LED-based lighting

Research Group Wiki

More information is available at the research group Wiki

Projects I've been associated with in the past:

See my publications page for more information.

In Academia

Sensors and actuators:

Infrared ranging by Image subtraction (IRIS), Low power wireless microsensors (LWIM), wireless integrated networked sensors (WIMS)

Complex systems:

Solar powered formation flight (SPFF, aka the "Speyer Flyer")

In Industry

Pioneer Venus, the SSMI radiometer, and various other commercial and military spacecraft systems; accelerometers for automotive air bag systems; the iRoom project, novel plasma etching methods, development of water purification equipment.