{"692116":{"#nid":"692116","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exam - Lance Fernandes","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle:\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EMaterial and Device Engineering of Ferroelectric NAND Flash Memory for Reliable High-Density Storage\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Khan, Advisor\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Yu, Chair\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Garten\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe objective of the proposed research is to investigate scalable ferroelectric NAND (FE-NAND) memory architectures, with emphasis on device design and gate-stack engineering for memory-window (MW) optimization, retention, and pass-disturb reliability in silicon and oxide-semiconductor-channel devices. Gate stack engineering showed that Al2O3 dielectric is most effective as a tunnel dielectric layer (between two ferroelectric layers), while SiO2 performs best as a gate-blocking layer (between gate and ferroelectric layer). Combining both in a hybrid stack achieved an MW exceeding 11 V, highlighting the importance of dielectric material and placement. Channel-side interlayer studies further showed that SiO2 channel-IL provides approximately 15% higher MW, 5% lower retention loss, and 44% lower pass disturb than higher-k Al2O3 and HfO2, primarily due to reduced trap density. Finally, oxide-semiconductor-channel devices achieved approximately 1.5x larger MW than comparable silicon-channel devices but exhibited significant retention degradation from ambient oxygen interaction. Channel capping effectively suppressed this degradation and restored retention comparable to silicon devices, revealing an additional ambient-induced reliability mechanism unique to oxide-semiconductor FE-NAND\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Material and Device Engineering of Ferroelectric NAND Flash Memory for Reliable High-Density Storage"}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-08-29 14:17:47","changed_gmt":"2026-08-30 15:13:32","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-09-29T14:30:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2026-09-29T16:30:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-09-29T16:30:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-09-29 18:30:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-09-29 20:30:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-09-29 20:30:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room 231A, MiRC","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/meet\/278223914711083?p=Rm65qvfCHJ1O6CRR8d","title":"Microsoft Teams Meeting link"}],"groups":[{"id":"434371","name":"ECE Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exams"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"102851","name":"Phd proposal"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692115":{"#nid":"692115","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exam - Surabhi Athalye","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle:\u0026nbsp; \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EAugmented Model-Based and Model-Free Frameworks for Secure Cyber-Physical Systems Operation\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Vamvoudakis, Advisor\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Wardi, Chair\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. Coogan\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe objective of the proposed research is to develop approaches that extend and exploit the capabilities of mathematical models for secure cyber-physical design and operation, while judiciously incorporating model-free augmentations to recover any performance loss incurred due to modeling imprecision. In particular, we will focus on two main goals: (a) broadening the functionality of models to derive novel quantitative measures to assess system properties and vulnerability to adversarial intervention; and (b) deriving autonomous frameworks that will intelligently introduce complementary data-driven and model-free techniques into the decision-making scheme to robustify model-based architectures against performance degradation resulting from imperfect knowledge and\/or modeling inaccuracies.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Augmented Model-Based and Model-Free Frameworks for Secure Cyber-Physical Systems Operation"}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-08-29 14:12:29","changed_gmt":"2026-08-29 14:14:22","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-09-01T11:30:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2026-09-01T13:30:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-09-01T13:30:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-09-01 15:30:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-09-01 17:30:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-09-01 17:30:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room 317, Montgomery Knight","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/l\/meetup-join\/19%3ameeting_YzJlZDAyNzktY2QzNy00ZWNkLWFlNmMtYTE3ZjcxOTlhZDYy%40thread.v2\/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22482198bb-ae7b-4b25-8b7a-6d7f32faa083%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%223a3e6bec-34f3-4f3b-8ea4-99a7f8690556%22%7d","title":"Microsoft Teams Meeting link"}],"groups":[{"id":"434371","name":"ECE Ph.D. Proposal Oral Exams"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"102851","name":"Phd proposal"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692091":{"#nid":"692091","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Theodore Callis","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; Additively Manufactured Apertures and Sensors for Millimeter-Wave Radio Frequency Identification Devices with Applications in Wearables, Internet-of-Things, and Cyberphysical Systems\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Manos Tentzeris, ECE, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Andrew Peterson, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Gregory Durgin, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Nicholas Paraskevopoulos, Northrop\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Suresh Sitaraman, ME\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe fifth generation of wireless communications has driven the Internet of Things toward the upper millimeter-wave bands, where abundant spectrum enables high data rates and dense device deployment, but realizing this at scale requires nodes that are simultaneously miniature, ultra-low-power, and inexpensive to manufacture, all while overcoming the severe round-trip path loss that limits millimeter-wave backscatter. These constraints impose competing demands on millimeter-wave radio-frequency identification (mmID) devices: they must provide high gain to close the link, yet retain the wide angular coverage needed for interrogation from arbitrary reader positions. This dissertation resolves that tension along two complementary directions: additively manufactured retrodirective apertures and integrated printed sensors which both share a unified fabrication method of inkjet and 3D printing. The aperture work advances from planar to volumetric beamforming: a fully inkjet-printed, conformal transmitarray-mmID achieves wide angular coverage while remaining flexible and mechanically reconfigurable under bending, and a compact 3D-printed Luneburg lens mmID uses a stereolithography-printed isotropic truss unit cell to realize the refractive-index gradient required for near-spherical coverage, with a semi-passive, cross-polarized variant validated for long-range operation. The sensing work couples low-cost printed transducers directly to the backscatter channel through an inkjet-printed lab-on-chip mmID for liquid conductivity, a self-powered thermoelectric wearable with printed microfluidic pH sensing, a fully printed electrochemical DNA sensor for sequence-specific detection, and an amine-functionalized carbon-nanotube chemiresistor for environmental gas monitoring. Together, these contributions converge high-gain retrodirective backscatter and integrated printed sensing on one additively manufactured platform, bridging the gap between proof-of-concept mmID demonstrations and deployable low-power sensing nodes for the upper 5G regime.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Additively Manufactured Apertures and Sensors for Millimeter-Wave Radio Frequency Identification Devices with Applications in Wearables, Internet-of-Things, and Cyberphysical Systems "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-08-28 12:24:18","changed_gmt":"2026-08-28 12:25:18","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-09-11T10:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2026-09-11T12:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-09-11T12:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-09-11 14:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-09-11 16:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-09-11 16:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room 509, TSRB","extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692090":{"#nid":"692090","#data":{"type":"event","title":"Ph.D. Dissertation Defense - Narasimha Vasishta Kidambi","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ETitle\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cem\u003E:\u0026nbsp; Scalable Compute-in-Memory Architectures for Integer-Constrained Least-Squares Optimization\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Saibal Mukhopadhyay, ECE, Chair, Advisor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Suman Datta, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Shimeng Yu, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Callie Hao, ECE\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr.\u0026nbsp;Hyesoon Kim, CoC\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThis dissertation presents scalable mixed-signal compute-in-memory architectures for solving integer-constrained least-squares problems. First, a fabricated 65-nm SRAM-based solver uses stochastic Hopfield dynamics to perform local optimization directly within memory. Next, a fabricated 28-nm analog compute-in-memory macro provides high-throughput vector\u2013matrix multiplication, achieving 10.16 TOPS and a peak energy efficiency of 194.6 TOPS\/W. Finally, these two hardware functions are integrated within a block-coordinate framework that decomposes large optimization problems into smaller subproblems. The results demonstrate how specialized compute-in-memory hardware can reduce data movement and provide an energy-efficient path toward solving larger integer-constrained optimization problems.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Scalable Compute-in-Memory Architectures for Integer-Constrained Least-Squares Optimization "}],"uid":"28475","created_gmt":"2026-08-28 12:21:14","changed_gmt":"2026-08-28 12:22:41","author":"Daniela Staiculescu","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2026-09-02T14:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2026-09-02T16:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2026-09-02T16:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2026-09-02 18:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2026-09-02 20:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2026-09-02 20:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"location":"Room 3126, Klaus ","extras":[],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/l\/meetup-join\/19%3ameeting_MTMxNGFkYWQtOTdjYy00YmRiLWIzYzItNTkyNDJhNjViZDdm%40thread.v2\/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22482198bb-ae7b-4b25-8b7a-6d7f32faa083%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%222e30a72e-0c96-4144-8c9d-4c63c16c886c%22%7d","title":"Microsoft Teams Link "}],"groups":[{"id":"434381","name":"ECE Ph.D. Dissertation Defenses"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"},{"id":"1808","name":"graduate students"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78771","name":"Public"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}