2023 SPARKS

DEPARTMENT HEAD

Dear friends of the Department, students, and colleagues,

Welcome to the Spring 2023 edition of Sparks. Departmental activities have increased tremendously now that the most serious effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are over. Students have started to gather around the department student lounge in greater numbers and several presentations by internal and external speakers have taken place. We are all very resilient Razorbacks.

In this issue, you will read about efforts by Distinguished Professor Samir ElGhazaly to develop a symposium on Microwave & Antennas, IEEE IMAS, to provide opportunities for researchers and practitioners across Northern Africa to exchange information in this very important field. The first symposium IEEE IMAS 2023 took place in Cairo, Egypt, this past February 2023. Other activities include an effort by the UA Power Group to develop a silicon carbide (SiC) fab that will be a significant resource for UA researchers as well as external users. Professors Alan Mantooth and Yue Zhao had their traction inverter for electric aircrafts take its maiden

flight. Professor Jingxian Wu and Mr. Robert Saunders are developing a sensor to measure the levels of dehydration in a hospital setting – great social impact of our profession.

The department received an important donation from Keysight Technologies in equipment for our undergraduate laboratories as well as research equipment for RF & microwave. Our undergraduate laboratories are definitely state of the art.

The department continues its recruiting efforts to attract more students into electrical engineering. An example is hosting a local troop of the Girl Scouts by the department chapter of IEEE Women in Engineering. In March 2023, we had an almost 50% increase in the number of first-year engineering students choosing our wonderful profession.

Thus, I welcome you to read our Spring 2023 edition of Sparks.

Warmest regards,

Juan Carlos Balda

University Professor and Department Head

Twenty-First Century Leadership Chair in Engineering

U of A Gaining Valuable Connections in Africa With the IMAS 2023 Conference

IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (IEEE MTT-S) launched the International Microwave & Antennas Symposium (IMAS) conference for Africa in Cairo Egypt on February 7-9, 2023. The conference provided researchers and students with opportunities to collaborate on radiofrequency (RF) components, microwave technology and antennas. Dr. Samir M. El-Ghazaly, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor at the University of Arkansas (UARK) and a fellow of IEEE, spearheaded the initiative after recognizing Africa’s potential for growth.

“For several years, we felt that there is great potential for growth in Africa, especially with RF systems and their use in wireless technology… Scientists and engineers contributed and presented technical papers from both inside and outside Africa. This helped create major opportunities for researchers and students to learn from each other and get to know each other. Hopefully, in the future, these researchers and students will collaborate on projects together,” said Dr. El-Ghazaly.

With support of the National Science Foundation, the IMAS conference sponsored a two-day workshop prior to the start of the conference. The workshop attracted over 75 participants. The participants presented research on satellite communications, Radars for civilian applications, Smart Village, and Smart City.

Organizers of and speakers at the IMAS 2023 conference convene to discuss presentations during lunch breaks.

Atungulu Wejinya El-Ghazaly

“Professor Uche Wejinya, from UARK Mechanical Engineering, and Professor Griffiths Atungulu, from the UARK Department of Food Science, presented at the workshop and attended the conference. They both are interested in follow up activities with other attendees,” said Dr. El-Ghazaly, “Both the workshops and the conference were huge successes because they introduced people to each other, created collaboration, and opportunities. I know several researchers from UARK and from Africa are communicating following their interactions at the workshop.”

The conference has far-reaching implications for UARK. It provides African scientists and students visibility to UARK and creates opportunities for strategic collaborations that are significant from technical, academic, economic points of view at a global level.

Dr. El-Ghazaly expresses hope that the conference would be held every two years in different African countries. This will promote research and collaboration in radiofrequency internationally. He believes the initiative will attract and recruit top students from Africa and create business

relationships to benefit both Africa and the United States. The 2025 IMAS conference is likely to be held in Morocco, but has not yet been finalized.

Dr. El-Ghazaly said, “After that, we will move it anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa. It’s difficult for me to predict exactly where, but maybe Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, the East Coast of Africa, or maybe even South Africa.”

The Marriott Mena House courtyard in Cairo.

The Marriott Mena House Hotel in Cairo.

Keysight Lab Is Now Open

Keysight Technologies and the University of Arkansas Department of Electrical Engineering (ELEG) have opened a new instrumentation lab in the Bell Engineering Center. Keysight Technologies is a company that manufactures electronics test and measurement equipment.

The new lab, named after Keysight, will allow students to participate in courses with industry-leading equipment. On the day of the lab opening ceremony, Keysight held presentations and a workshop showcasing new equipment for the students. Dr. Kim Needy, Dean of the College Engineering, was there to cut the opening ribbon with Doug Baney, Worldwide Corporate Director of Education Keysight Technologies. Keysight strongly believes investing in the future of the ELEG student body for future scientific advancements. Doug Baney said, “By receiving training and engaging in practical exercises with the latest industrygrade electronic measurement equipment from Keysight, students can develop the necessary skills and confidence to excel in their future careers.”

Dr. Balda (left), Dean Needy (middle), Doug Baney (holding scissors with Dean Needy) cutting the opening ribbon.

The U of A is well positioned to be a leader in the United States’ semiconductor economy. Semiconductors, such as silicon, are essential materials in most electronic devices and advance performance in fields such as healthcare, the military, computing and transportation. In the last two years, researchers at the U of A, primarily in electrical engineering and physics, have been awarded in excess of $45 million in funding to create a multi-user silicon carbide research and fabrication facility, a center dedicated to investigating the formation of atomic orders in semiconductor alloys and their effects on various physical properties, and, in collaboration with Montana State University, a Quantum Foundry to accelerate the development of quantum materials and devices.

Building on this expertise, the university has launched a major new initiative to increase investment in semiconductor research and awareness of what is already happening.

The U of A’s existing research foundation means it’s uniquely positioned to take advantage of the recent CHIPS (Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors) and Science Act, which is providing approximately $280 billion in funding to stimulate domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors.

As a result of manufacturing and production shortages of essential computer chips during the pandemic, which are overwhelmingly manufactured overseas, the federal government has prioritized the onshoring of this critical technology.

Alan Mantooth, a Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering, noted in a recent interview that the semiconductor isn’t just important, “It’s foundational. A lot of things get built off semiconductors.”

Mantooth added, “I think it’s important to recognize that this region and Arkansas particularly, and this university, are very well positioned because we have that entire value chain. From the foundational work to the new fabrication going in, to backend processes that allow us to build all the way to the application, and the people that we work with, like John Deere, Caterpillar, Ford, G.M., Toyota… I think there is an opportunity to attract businesses to this state and region that we haven’t had before as a result of investment through the CHIPS Act and raised awareness of what’s here.”

U of A Chancellor Charles Robinson noted that there isn’t currently a semiconductor chip plant in Arkansas, and creating one is essential to retaining talent. “Historically, our graduates who want to work in this field have had to leave the area. Greater investment in and awareness about what

is happening here will not only create opportunities to keep our graduates here, but incentivize even more talented people to come here. We’re at an inflection point where the university can step forward to maximize its potential in this field.”

“The university and state of Arkansas have a golden opportunity to help drive the United States’ semiconductor industry and transform the heartland of the nation in the process,” said Mike Malone, vice chancellor for economic development. “Through workforce development, talent attraction and retention, unmatched facilities and partnerships with global industry leaders, we are ready to take the lead.”

Mantooth

Electric Motor Drive Takes Off in Test Flight of Passenger Hybrid Electric Plane

Engineering researchers at the U of A achieved a major milestone Feb. 20 with the successful test flight of their electric motor drive on a hybrid electric aircraft. The project could lead to significant changes in the aeronautics industry and huge benefits to environmental quality.

Used primarily as air taxis in island regions and remote areas, small planes like the Cessna 337 have two gasoline-powered engines that perform the demanding tasks of air propulsion and acceleration, as well as lighter tasks such as taxiing, cruising and

landing. These engines are notorious gas guzzlers.

For the past several years, researchers led by Alan Mantooth, Distinguished Professor of Electrical Engineering and executive director of the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission (NCREPT) at the U of A, have engaged in an ambitious project to design and develop batterypowered motor drives that can be used in lieu of one of the gas-powered engines.

The project was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy/Advanced Research

Projects Agency–Energy CIRCUITS program, or ARPA-E, a U.S. government agency promoting and funding early-stage research and development of advanced energy technologies.

Mantooth and U of A researchers David Huitink, Yue Zhao and Chris Farnell designed a 250-kilowatt motor drive to power a rear electrical engine in a hybrid electric aircraft testbed developed by Ampaire Inc., an electrified aircraft company in Southern California. In combination with a gasoline-powered engine in the front

of the aircraft, the rear electrical engine propels aircraft during taxiing, takeoff, cruising and landing.

Led by Nenad Miljkovic, professor of mechanical science and engineering, the University of Illinois researchers focused on thermal-management design, while the U of A researchers contributed expertise on electrical and mechanical and controls.

Wolfspeed, a trademarked manufacturer of silicon-carbide semiconductors, contributed commercial power modules and integration expertise to the development of the electronic motor drive. Ampaire coached the academic-led team through the rigorous environmental testing requirements, derived from aerospace hardware standards and necessary to qualify and validate the motor drive’s performance and reliability on a pathway to test flight. After roughly 18 months of ground tests and validations proving the technology, Ampaire successfully piloted the plane, powered by the research team’s inverter technology. The test flight occurred Feb. 20 at the Camarillo airport near Los Angeles.

“With recent refinements, we’ve managed to optimize design of the electrical-thermalmechanical-control systems — in other words, all aspects of the motor drive are now simultaneously optimized,” Mantooth said. “This has major implications for the new and emerging era of electrification

of transportation vehicles, whether they be planes, trains, automobiles, heavy equipment, ships or drones. We’re extremely excited about this work.”

The hybrid aircraft was displayed at the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit in Denver in 2022 and inspected by U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. After extensive testing and evaluation, the test flight comes before the 2023 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit that will be in Washington, D.C., March 22-24. Aided by the research team, Ampaire will conduct additional test flights and continue to collect data to improve future designs.

“The flying testbed capability, supported by ARPA-e, gives Ampaire a rapid test tool for evaluation of emerging technology in a relevant environment,” said Ed Lovelace,

chief technology officer and vice president of engineering at Ampaire. “Successfully evaluated technologies have an opportunity to become part of Ampaire’s commercial electrified aviation product roadmap, providing greater capabilities.”

“The University of Arkansas electric motor drive was the first ARPA-E technology to be successfully tested in-flight on the ARPA-E hybrid electric aircraft testbed and is a big accomplishment for ARPA-E and the CIRCUITS program,” said Isik Kizilyalli, ARPA-E associate director for technology.

“Testing transformative electric aviation technologies on an aero-platform in actual flight environments enables validation of the technology in real-world conditions, which will greatly accelerate the adoption of the technology. The U of A motor drive

The left shows the inverter connected to the NCREPT; the right shows the SiC motor inverter with the lid off.

was the first of soon-to-be-many ARPA-Efunded electric aviation technologies, such as circuit breakers, inverters, motors, power distribution systems, batteries, fuel cells and even high-efficiency combustion engines that will be tested in flight as the agency tackles the electrification of aircraft to bring us towards a more electrified future.”

The project was an outgrowth of collaborations established as part of the National Science Foundation Center for Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems. Based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the center focuses on increased electrification in all modes of mobility and transport.

As a top power electronics program worldwide, the U of A Power Group is a partner of the center, for which Mantooth serves as executive director. In addition to motor drive design, U of A researchers contributed meaningful laboratory research and testing at NCREPT and the university’s High Density Electronics Center. NCREPT houses grid-scale, regenerative power electronic drives, circuit breakers, transformers and other equipment, while High Density Electronics Center provides a unique facility for creating integrated and packaged power modules that form the basis of power electronics components and the equipment for mechanical vibration testing and analysis.

Researchers Seek to Develop Device to Assess Dehydration in Medical Emergencies

Researchers at the U of A are developing a device that could help medical personnel save lives when they are assessing patients during an emergency.

“This device will determine the dehydration level of patients with minimum delay, such that paramedics and doctors can give the appropriate amount of fluids. This device will help save lives in the ER or in an ambulance,” said Robert Saunders, one of the project’s developers and an instructor for the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Morten Jensen, a biomedical engineering associate professor, hypothesized with colleagues at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences that there is a correlation between venous pressure the pressure within the vein and hydration levels. Saunders and Jensen’s primary collaborators include Jingxian Wu, professor of electrical engineering, and Dr. Kevin Sexton, associate professor at UAMS. The group is working to develop a device that will help doctors quickly determine a patient’s dehydration level at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. They are using data collected from experiments with large animals.

“The dehydration level of a patient is embedded in the shape of venous pressure waves. However, it is difficult to extract such information from the venous pressure waveform, which is usually very weak and buried in noise and interferences. Dr. Wu has developed a new artificial intelligence algorithm that can extract dehydration information from the venous waveform,” Saunders said.

Wu, who is working on the signal processing side of the project, said the device uses artificial intelligence to build a correlation between venous pressure and dehydration level.

“We train the model using data collected from patients and animal experiments. The signal processing algorithm can build

a model by using the training data, and the model can be used to extract the dehydration information from the venous pressure waveforms.”

The device has three potential applications.

“The first is for the paramedics in an ambulatory environment. Paramedics can attach an IV to a patient. We can immediately assess the dehydration level of the patient and decide how much fluid the paramedics need to give the patient,” Wu explained.

“The second is when a patient is admitted to the ER, particularly pediatric patients. The majority of these patients are actually dehydrated. This shows within the signals of the device. The doctor must assess how much fluid should be kept on hand for the patient. In this traditional setting, determining the level of dehydration requires blood work and can take hours. Often, the doctor needs to decide right away,” Wu said.

The third application is on the battlefield when combat soldiers are injured.

“There is blood loss and sometimes internal bleeding. It turns out that dehydration and bleeding have a similar effect on the body. It’s still losing fluid. If the medics on the battlefield have this device, they can directly connect it to the soldier to determine whether they are seriously injured. If they are severely dehydrated, it probably means they have severe internal bleeding,” Wu said.

However, the device needs more data to improve its accuracy. “The biggest challenge is that we don’t have enough data yet. The more data there is to train the machine learning model, the better. We have a limited number of test subjects today,” Wu said.

The goal of the interdisciplinary team is to continue to develop the device and have it become a widely used tool in medical emergencies.

Jensen Wu

Women in Engineering Hosts Girl Scouts for Lessons in STEM

Members of the College of Engineering’s IEEE Women in Engineering registered student organization recently invited several dozen Girl Scouts to campus to introduce them to STEM, specifically electrical engineering.

In a hands-on activity, group members showed approximately 50 Girl Scouts, ages 7 to 14 years old, how to make wires out of Play-Doh to use as conductors to a 9-volt battery to power a small light. The girls also learned that they could use different colors of Play-Doh to affect the color of the small light bulb.

Sarah Martinez, president of Women in Engineering, speaks to a group of Girl Scouts during their recent visit to campus.

Sarah Martinez, an electrical engineering student who is president of Women in Engineering, said the group’s main objective was to introduce electrical engineering and STEM to girls who might not have had the opportunity before. She received positive feedback from the Girl Scouts leaders and parents.

Martinez did not begin learning about STEM - which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math - until she started attending the U of A. She wishes she had had the opportunity to learn more when she was in grade school.

“I think it’s important to get younger girls involved in STEM. Traditionally, men have been the people going into STEM fields, especially ones like electrical engineering, not necessarily women or even girls in general. So, getting them introduced to it now, I think, would help diversify electrical engineering and make it relatable for younger girls,” she said.

Martinez said Women in Engineering plans to return to hosting the event annually after it was postponed for a few years because of the pandemic.

“I think it’s important for women engineers to reach out to the younger generations of women. This was a good event for that,” Martinez said, while thanking sponsor American Electric Power Company, who paid costs for the event. “We were able to

include power in the activity and show how electricity is delivered to houses. We really appreciate their contribution and support.”

Additional members of Women in Engineering who participated in the event were Maria Quintero, Gabriela Mendoza, Miguel Herrera, Andrew Perez, Keeton Wilbern, Ryan Williams, Yen Pham, Katherine Schauffhauser, Shirley Vega, Lauren Grace, Thalia Hawkins, Basha Moncur and Christian Morton.

Silke Alexandra Spiesshoefer, clinical assistant professor of electrical engineering, is the adviser for Women in Engineering.

2023 UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

A publication by the College of Engineering, Electrical Engineering Department

CONTRIBUTORS

DEPARTMENT HEAD

Juan Carlos Balda

EDITOR

Austin Cook

DESIGNER

Ross Maute

CONTRIBUTORS

Hardin Young

Matt McGowan

PHOTOGRAPHERS

Austin Cook

Russell Cothren

Chris Farnell

Justin Jackson

George Shaker

“I think it’s important for women engineers to reach out to the younger generations of women. This was a good event for that.”

Notable Numbers

163

Fall 2022 Undergraduate Student Enrollment

Fall 2022 Graduate Student Enrollment

111 Faculty Members

16

Research awards for current fiscal year

Research Strengths

The Department of Electrical Engineering has the highest research production and the largest graduate program in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas. It is also home to worldclass expertise and facilities in power electronics, electronic packaging, imaging technology and optoelectronics.

14 percent of the electrical engineering students are female

Giving Back to the Department

20 percent of the electrical engineering graduate enrollment is female

$23.8 million

Research Centers

• Center for Power Optimization of Electro-Thermal Systems

• Cybersecurity Center for Secure Evolvable Energy Delivery Systems

• Grid-Connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems

• High Density Electronics Center

• National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission

The support from our alumni and friends is vital to the support of the current and next generations of students.

The Integrated Design Experience, in particular, is helping our students become better prepared for real-world challenges.

If you want to support the work we are doing, click on the “Give” button located on the right side of our department webpage, electrical-engineering.uark.edu. Remember that your donation is tax deductible.

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University of Arkansas | Department of Electrical Engineering