ECE Faculty Win Invention of the Year Awards in Two Categories

news story image

Prof. Abshire (second from right) and her team won the Invention of the Year award for their invention, "Cell Sensor Based Pathogen Detection."

ECE faculty won two categories and two other ECE-related inventions were runner-up finalists at the University of Maryland's 18th annual Invention of the Year awards, sponsored by the Office of Technology Commercialization.

In the Information Science category, Professor K.J. Ray Liu (ECE/ISR), along with Dr. Weifeng Su (ISR) and Dr. Zoltan Safar, won for their invention, "Coding Techniques for Maximum Achievable Diversity in Space, Time and Frequency for Broadband Wireless Communications."

Dr. Liu’s team developed a systematic code design method that can guarantee reliable data transmissions at high data rates in broadband wireless communications using multiple transmit antennas. Novel features of the technology include the inaugural design of full diversity space-frequency (SF) codes from space-time (ST) codes via mapping and the first systematic SF code design method that can guarantee both full rate and full diversity in multiple-input-multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) wireless communication systems.

In the same category, Rajeev Barua (ECE/ISR) and ECE graduate student Sumesh Udayakumaran were finalists for "A Dynamic Memory Allocator for Embedded Systems with Scratch-Pad Memory."

In the Physical Science category, Assistant Professor Pamela Abshire (ECE/ISR), Assistant Professor Benjamin Shapiro (AE/ISR), and Associate Professor Elisabeth Smela (ME/ECE) won for their invention, "Cell Sensor Based Pathogen Detection."

The main idea behind the invention was to create a "cell canary" pathogen detection system that monitors the response of many live cells to the external environment. Each cell, or cell colony, is bio-engineered for specific metabolic pathways in response to a specific external pathogen. The cellular pathways of living cells are monitored in real-time to determine whether the cells died due to the presence of their target pathogen. This technology is likely to have a broad impact outside the scope of this invention, since it will create powerful new ways of studying and measuring cellular responses.

In the same category, Associate Professor Reza Ghodssi (ECE/ISR) and ECE grad student Brian Morgan were finalists for their work related to "On-Chip Active Optical Fiber Alignment System using Gray-Scale Technology."

The awards are presented annually to honor outstanding inventions and inventors from the previous year.

Also see:

Complete University of Maryland News Release

Published April 20, 2005