Our department features world-class undergraduate laboratory facilities and research opportunities. The core areas of ECE research are summarized below.
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Communications
Description
Communications in ECE is an interdisciplinary research area focusing on all aspects of wireless communications, with applications that include data networks, sensor networks, robust and/or covert communications, networked communications, position location, software defined radio, and antennas. Studies of electromagnetics and wireless measurements combine theoretical and computational modeling with experimental testing in order to develop systems, models, and design & analysis tools, for use by private-sector, US government, and regulatory agencies. This area offers an excellent opportunity for student education through a variety of courses and research exposure.
Faculty
Associate Professor Charles Nelson
CDR John Gamble, USN
Assistant Professor Connor SmithFacilities
Our facilities include a Communications and Digital Design Lab with 1:1 laboratory bench to student ratio as well as an Anechoic Chamber (frequency range of 800 MHz to 40 GHz) with PNS-X and vector network analyzers. -
Materials, Devices, and Micro-Scale Fabrication
Description
The ability to fabricate structures, devices, and systems that are robust and precise is extremely important. It requires the development of advanced manufacturing processes that facilitate better, cheaper, and faster transition by removing limitations such as casting, molding, and masking. Our capabilities include cutting-edge micro-scale fabrication and characterization systems supporting our students and faculty in several fields. Our current projects include flexible electronics, reconfigurable antennas, meta-conductors, frequency selective surfaces, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding composites, and additively manufactured MEMS transducers.
Faculty
Professor Samara Firebaugh
Associate Professor Hatem ElBidweihy
Assistant Professor Connor SmithFacilities
Our facilities include a cleanroom with a maskless aligner for direct-write lithography applications, a magnetron sputtering system for thin-film deposition, a 5-axis aerosol jet printer for conformal and 3d-printed electronics, a physical property measurement system with a full suite of characterization capabilities, a probe station, and several imaging and surface topography measurement systems.
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Mobile Agents & Networks
Description
Faculty in the Mobile Agents and Networks Group work on problems related to communication and control of mobile autonomous agents. Representative projects include 1) delay-tolerant communication in a team of camera-equipped tracking agents, 2) methods for generating collective motions based on interactions between neighboring agents, and 3) methods for encoding data in a traffic infrastructure with specially designed "Lidar barcodes".
Faculty
Associate Professor Kevin Galloway
Associate Professor Dan OpilaFacilities
The Mobile Agents & Networks (MANET) lab is a space for exploring the interactions between autonomous mobile agents which are equipped with various sensors and communication devices. The lab is equipped with a 14-camera Optitrack motion capture camera system which serves as an "indoor GPS" to track the movements of agents with millimeter precision. The lab is also equipped with a fleet of wheeled robots (Turtlebot 2, Turtlebot 3, and iRobot Create-based mobile robots designed and fabricated in house) as well as four quadcopter drones. -
Optics, Photonics, and Electronics
Description
Research in the ECE related to optics, photonics and electronics is highly interdisciplinary, involving numerous faculty and students. The focus has been broad, including experimental efforts as well as theory and numerical modeling. Recent projects have emphasized 3-D printing, fiber optic sensors, radiation sensing and particle detection, component fabrication, material responses, power electronics devices, laser beam propagation and atmospheric optical turbulence characterization. Example areas of application are diverse, including communications, sensing, smart structures, additive manufacturing, directed energy weapons, power systems, and optical component design, among others.
Faculty
Associate Professor Hatem ElBidweihy
Professor Brian Jenkins
Associate Professor Charles Nelson
Assistant Professor Connor SmithFacilities
Our facilities include a lab that focuses on photonics and materials research and teaching as well as a cleanroom. Additive manufacturing capabilities include a variety of SLA printers as well as an aerosol jet printer. A variety of fiber optic sensors and sensor interrogation tools and test equipment are available for use. Materials can be studied using various microsystem analysis capabilities (spin coating, microfluidics, tube furnace, etc) as well as a physical property measurement tools with a full suite of characterization capabilities. High speed photonics test equipment (communications and spectrum analyzers, waveform generators, laser transmitters and receivers, interferometers and Fourier optics characterization, etc) are available.
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Power and Energy
Description
The power and energy group studies the design, control, and optimization of energy systems that energize our world. This includes renewable energy generation, electrified transportation, electrical transmission, distribution, and protection, power converters, electric ships, and many other applications. We have state of the art simulation and testing capabilities and often work with the broader Navy labs and other universities..
Faculty
Associate Professor Daniel Opila
Research Associate Professor Hyungseon OhFacilities
Our Power Lab includes large spaces for lab work, student projects, and faculty research. Also includes a 500 kW electrical feed, rooftop solar array, solar inverters, and Tesla PowerWall -
Scalable Secure Software
Description
Modern computing applications and protocols require both scalability and security. Applications must scale to the size of modern hardware's multicore processors and accelerators, and they must operate in cloud-scale networks. Concurrently, applications and networks must provide security against malicious actors. Our proficiencies include:- Compiler instrumentation
- Dynamic binary instrumentation
- Processor simulation
- FPGA design
- Networking protocols
- Network security.
Faculty
Assistant Professor Christian DeLozierProfessor Ryan RakvicProfessor Hau NgoAssociate Professor Owens WalkerAssistant Professor Dane Brown
Facilities
A sandboxed network with fiber optic and gigabit ethernet connectionsThree Dell rack servers with virtualization capabilitiesAn FPGA design server with four Intel Stratix 10 MX boardsAn ARM server with two 28-core CPUsA GPU compute server with tensor processing hardware -
Secure Hardware
Description
Our secure hardware area of research was formed in response to agency requests to secure real-world hardware systems including computer systems and memory/storage devices. Consequently, its research activities have focused exclusively on real world (non-virtualized, non-simulated) hardware experiments. This stands in contrast with the vast majority of current academic cyber security research. It currently includes research in:- Non-invasive, real-time detection and classification of state of the art malware/ransomware attacks on real world (non-virtualized) hardware systems using modern machine learning techniques
- Side-channel analysis and vulnerability testing of novel memory technologies including phase change memory, resistive RAM, and MRAM
- Reverse engineering of embedded-system security implementations including authentication and encryption
- Real-time SSD firmware classification and anomaly detection using FPGAs
Faculty
Associate Professor Owens WalkerCDR Jennie HillProfessor Justin BlancoAssistant Professor Christian DelozierProfessor Rob IvesProfessor Hau NgoProfessor Ryan Rakvic
Facilities
Our current hardware infrastructure, located in our Computer Engineering Lab in newly constructed Hopper Hall, includes:- State-of-the-art workstations in a dedicated "ransomware" lab
- High-speed data recorders and accompanying side-channel measurement equipment
- State-of-the-art ransomware samples currently found in the wild
- High-resolution thermal imaging cameras
- Separate conference room and postdoc office space
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Signal Processing and Data Science
Description
Faculty in the Signal Processing and Data Science Group work on problems related to extracting information from, or embedding information in, data. This includes 1) digital and analog techniques and hardware for the filtering, spectrum shaping, or other conditioning of signals, for example in the context of detection and de-noising; 2) pattern recognition, classification, and regression; 3) encryption and obfuscation; and 4) signal encoding, compression, and transmission. Specific application areas include biomedicine and biometrics, image processing, communications, and radar and sonar.
Faculty
Professor Justin Blanco
Professor Rob Ives
Associate Professor Kevin Galloway
PEO/IWS Research Engineer Greg Coxson
Facilities
The Signal Processing and Data Science Laboratory (Hopper 041) serves several functions within the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and the Naval Academy. It is a studio lab, with a lecture area in the front of the room and 10 lab benches in the back of the room. Within the department it supports electives in Digital Signal Processing, Biometric Signal Processing, and Brain-Machine Learning. It is also used for a number of student design projects as well as midshipmen and faculty research. The biometric systems within the lab are also used to promote USNA’s STEM outreach initiatives and support our department in plebe majors briefs. Classes in the Signal Processing and Data Science Laboratory typically involve programming in Matlab, Python, or C/C++. Students use their own laptops or one of two desktops available in the lab. For lab access, the LG iCAM7101S-B iris recognition and the Schlage HandKey hand geometry recognition systems are used. Special hardware used for research or demonstrations include the Morpho 3-D Face Reader System; ten Crossmatch I Scan 2 iris systems and ten Crossmatch Patrol fingerprint systems; sixteen SecuGen Hamster IV fingerprint scanners; two SecuriMetrics Pier 2.0 portable iris systems; a SecuriMetrics Hiide Series 4 portable iris and fingerprint system; and an IrisID iCam H100 portable iris system. The adjacent Biosignals Laboratory (Hopper 039) supports midshipman and faculty research, as well as Capstone projects, involving signal processing and machine learning applied to physiological data - for example, EEG activity recorded from the human brain or movement data collected by body-worn accelerometers.
