ECE Grad Students Sweep Hayes Graduate Research Forum Oral Division in Engineering

Three electrical and computer engineering graduate students—Justin Ziniel, Xiaodong Wang and Ugur Olgun—swept the engineering area of the 2012 Hayes Graduate Research Forum Oral Division. Ziniel, Wang and Olgun received first, second and third place respectively out of a total of 40 students who entered the engineering area.

Justin Ziniel—a doctoral student interested in signal processing, graphical models and machine learning—received first place in the engineering area. Ziniel discussed his group’s work in compressed sensing, a mathematical tool that creates high-resolution data from low-resolution samples. His group has created unique algorithms capable of recovering sparse signals for a wide variety of different types of signal structure. Their new techniques are flexible, able to model many different types of structure, and very fast, sometimes working hundreds or thousands of times faster than alternative methods. The group has applied their techniques to a real, undersampled dynamic MRI image sequence with good results. Ziniel is advised by Phil Schniter, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

ECE doctoral student Xiaodong Wang placed second. He presented his group’s work to curb the growing problem of high energy consumption by large-scale data centers by addressing the energy consumption of data center networks (DCN). Their proposed solution is a correlation-aware power optimization (CARPO) algorithm that dynamically consolidates traffic flows into a small set of links and switches in a DCN and then shuts down unused network devices for energy savings. Empirical results with Wikipedia traces demonstrate that CARPO can save up to 46% of network energy for a DCN, while having only negligible delay increases. Wang’s research areas are data center power and thermal management, including data center thermal monitoring and data center power aware networking. He is advised by Xiaorui Wang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and is a member of the Power Aware Computer System Lab.

Ugur Olgun, a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at the ElectroScience Laboratory, placed third. Olgun’s presentation focuses on his research to equip wireless devices, including  sensors, with novel, high efficiency circuitry to harvest and convert ambient RF power to direct current (DC). His group designed a novel RF power harvesting front-end whose conversion efficiency is significantly improved at low RF power levels (<-20 dBm), as compared to existing technologies. Thus, the new circuitry can harvest ambient and widely available RF energy, making it a game-changing technology for powering mobile devices. Using this technology, Olgun’s group is able to power a commercially available temperature and humidity meter with an LCD display using nothing more than ambient WiFi signals in an office environment. He is advised by Chi-Chih Chen, research associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, and John L. Volakis, Chope Chair professor and director of the ElectroScience Laboratory. Olgun’s research interests include wireless power harvesting, RFIDs and rectennas.

About the Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum
Now in its 26th year, the Edward F. Hayes Graduate Research Forum is co-sponsored by the Council of Graduate Students, the Graduate School, and the Office of Research. The forum helps feature excellent research conducted by Ohio State graduate students; recognizes outstanding graduate student scholarship; encourages graduate students to share their research; and facilitates exchange between students, faculty, administration and the public.