Strategic Research Initiatives

_{With the growing concerns of the influence of emissions on the global climate and the future viability of traditional energy sources, the aeronautics industry has been challenged on many fronts to improve efficiency, reduce emissions, and decrease dependency on carbon-based fuels. In 2015 alone, aircraft operations globally produced nearly one billion tons of CO2 emissions, and a substantial growth of aviation markets are projected to lead to large increases in air traffic and aircraft-related emissions. The Strategic Research Initiative program currently being conducted within the Department of Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering seeks to provide innovative and disruptive technological developments for future electric and hybrid-electric aircraft propulsion. These developments will contribute towards the future environmental sustainability of commercial aviation through reduced aircraft fuel burn, emissions, and noise, as well as substantial reductions in aircraft maintenance and operational costs for airlines. Much of these technologies can also be applied broadly to a variety of fields, such as renewable energy, transportation, and manufacturing industries.}

_{The goal of this research is to develop a new computational framework for efficient cryo-EM SPR. We propose a new approach that circumvents the difficult orientation estimation problem for ab initio reconstruction in cryo-EM. This new approach has the potential to succeed below the critical signal-to-noise ratio for current methods and scales linearly with the number of images. Advanced machine learning and optimization techniques will be applied to reduce the overall computational complexity for denoising, initial model determination, and iterative refinement. We will apply the new algorithmic pipeline to high-throughput experimental data in cryo-EM to discover new macromolecular structures.}

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_{The objective of this project is to build upon existing excellence in computational materials across The Grainger College of Engineering and to lay the groundwork for a major center-level activity. Experts in materials modeling reside in many departments across the College, with interests ranging from fully quantum mechanical descriptions of matter to macroscale materials processing. With strategic coordination of efforts and engagement of partners on and off campus, there is significant untapped potential for growth in new areas including multiscale modeling and data science. This project will take strategic steps to build these connections and position the college for a more coordinated computational materials center-level activity, with goals of (i) developing of national labs partnerships, (ii) engaging funding agencies, (iii) identifying external collaborators, and (iv) articulating focused research themes. The project will support a workshop to bring experts in multiscale modeling and data science to the College of Engineering to meet with local participants, and it will provide additional opportunities for local researchers to engage with national labs and funding agency partners.}

_{Confining light in deep-subwavelength volumes enables the re-examination of conventional rules for light-matter interactions and therefore makes many previously unreachable goals, such as on-chip optically controlled nano-tweezing of single proteins or biomarkers, miniaturized detection systems for single nanoparticles or fluorescence molecules, ultra-densely packed light sources and detectors in photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and label-free, super-resolution integrable nanoscopy systems, to renew the sparks of hope. However, the current mainstream tech-nologies in confining light in subwavelength volumes have some insuperable barriers when being massively manu-factured. Surface plasmon waves, generated by nanometallic structures, have realized light concentration into sub-wavelength volumes but with unacceptably high loss. Dielectric microspheres and their derivatives have also suc-cessfully confined light into sub-wavelength volumes, but the difficulty in handling, moving, and assembling these microstructures severely limits their practical applications in PICs. Hence, an integrated light concentrator that is mass manufacturable is a missing element that could enable the aforementioned applications and result in a new paradigm for nano-photonic devices.}

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_{Confining light in deep-subwavelength volumes enables the re-examination of conventional rules for light-matter interactions and therefore makes many previously unreachable goals, such as on-chip optically controlled nano-tweezing of single proteins or biomarkers, miniaturized detection systems for single nanoparticles or fluorescence molecules, ultra-densely packed light sources and detectors in photonic integrated circuits (PICs), and label-free, super-resolution integrable nanoscopy systems, to renew the sparks of hope. However, the current mainstream tech-nologies in confining light in subwavelength volumes have some insuperable barriers when being massively manu-factured. Surface plasmon waves, generated by nanometallic structures, have realized light concentration into sub-wavelength volumes but with unacceptably high loss. Dielectric microspheres and their derivatives have also suc-cessfully confined light into sub-wavelength volumes, but the difficulty in handling, moving, and assembling these microstructures severely limits their practical applications in PICs. Hence, an integrated light concentrator that is mass manufacturable is a missing element that could enable the aforementioned applications and result in a new paradigm for nano-photonic devices.}

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_{This project aims to address numerous challenges in the context of statistical inference for high-dimensional data streams. There are a plethora of inference problems in various models with diverse applications, including community detection on graphs, subspace clustering, learning Gaussian mixtures, and streaming PCA. Initial results on sketching and noisy clustering offers strong evidence for the feasibility of the approach.}

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_{Detecting terrorist movement of nuclear or radiological materials is of paramount importance to society. Standoff detection of nuclear or radiological materials, shielded or otherwise, is challenging because the signal at large distances is small, the background and noise are large, and signal acquisition times need to be short (thus further hampering the statistics of detection). The project goal is to establish a first-of-its-kind collaboration between radiological engineers, computer scientists, and GIS experts to explore how the fusing of publicly available data with a radiation sensor network to locate radiation sources, either fixed or moving.}

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_{Recent advances in single-molecule imaging, detection, and manipulation have vastly expanded our understanding of biology. Optical tweezers, atomic force microscopy, and single-molecule optical microscopy are providing critical insights into the physical structure, function, and dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids, and revealing mechanisms of molecular dysfunction in disease. However, these techniques are notoriously low-throughput and require specialized, expensive equipment and extensive training. For these reasons, single molecule techniques remain a niche field inaccessible to non-specialists, and limited progress has been made toward commercialization.}

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_{Currently more than 3 billion ultrasound exams are performed each year which far exceeds all other imaging modalities except for conventional x-ray imaging. However, while ultrasound has many advantages over other imaging modalities, the quality of conventional ultrasonic images is not competitive with magnetic resonance imaging, and X-ray computer aided tomography. For several decades, ultrasonic image formation has relied upon simple delay and sum beam formation. While such techniques have been highly developed and can provide real-time imaging capabilities, the resulting images are characterized by speckle and are affected by reverberation and aberration. Therefore, in order to improve upon existing ultrasonic imaging techniques a fundamental change in the paradigm of image formation must be adopted. The proposed research will dramatically affect how clinical ultrasound imaging is performed in the future.}

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_{Civil Infrastructure Systems (CIS) play an essential role in the U.S. economy. Efficient management of transportation infrastructure such as bridges calls for an effective decision-making process for understanding the contributing factors to deterioration and for selecting and prioritizing the operations necessary to maintain the reliability of a system. The use of Big Data analytics could transform the way civil infrastructure systems are operated and maintained so as to optimize decision making, improve safety, and reduce cost.}

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_{Wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors are recognized for their potential to revolutionize electric power systems, supporting disruptive changes in power electronics. The market for WBG power electronics is growing rapidly. While the initial emphasis has been on SiC, GaN holds the promise of better performance in high-speed and very high voltage applications and is, of course, uniquely suited for optical applications. It is projected that the GaN sector will top $2B within 5 years. With applications as diverse as hybrid cars, photovoltaic inverters, lighting, distributed generation, and communications – at voltages ranging widely from a few volts to tens of thousands of volts – WBG power electronics will take on a leading role over the next decade. This project proactively pursues strategic GaN-based power electronic device research, with a goal to establish a center for excellence and to explore entrepreneurial opportunities and attracting external funding for this growing research sector.}

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_{This project aims to develop a new nanomanufacturing platform—strain-induced self-rolled-up 3D architectures—for miniaturized on-chip electronic components for radio frequency and millimeter wave integrated circuits, and vertically integrated photonics. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach, the team will develop key technologies for making complex 3D architectures with unprecedented small physical form factor and transformative device concept.}

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_{To produce dramatically improved photocatalysts for solar hydrogen production as well as energy-efficient environmental remediation, researchers are pursuing a transformative approach for designing and synthesizing oxide heterojunctions for photocatalytic (PC) energy conversion devices. Their unique approach combines semiconductor defect engineering to control the concentration and lifetime of photo-stimulated charge carriers, semiconductor band engineering to control the flow of charge carriers within the photocatalyst, the use of “hot” carriers with greater than thermal energies, and atomic-scale modeling of the free surfaces and solid-solid interfaces to optimize atomic defect profiles during synthesis and carrier flow during operation.}

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_{The interdisciplinary team will address a set of problems with potentially far-reaching consequences for the future of DNA storage. The questions of interest include finding the ultimate theoretically achievable limits of DNA-based recording techniques; designing tailor-made joint constrained and error-control coding methods for DNA media that optimally exploit the properties of the system; designing universal coding methods invariant to the technology used for DNA synthesis and sequencing (Illumina versus Roche versus PacBio or some other emerging platform); and how significant will the cost savings ensured by near-optimal coding schemes be? The team will address these challenging questions both from an analytical and an implementation-based point of view—exploring how current design techniques may be improved, while developing new DNA sequence storage paradigms in an experimental setting.}

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_{The goal is to develop a new class of computing and power management hardware, software, and control algorithms that dramatically reduce energy requirements in future datacenters and computers. By seamlessly unifying the intrinsic processes of energy conversion, information processing, and software organization, the project seeks to transform the design of robust and energy-efficient embedded platforms, computers, and data centers. The patent-pending technology to be explored can reduce energy consumption of computing processes by an order of magnitude or more, overcoming emerging barriers to next-generation computing.}

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_{This project explores decision-making from a broad, multidisciplinary point of view, pairing recognized strengths in engineering decision theory and machine learning with the emerging science of social networks and expertise in human decision making to consider the next generation of human-machine (cognitive-algorithmic) decision systems.}

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_{Fundamental studies on interfaces—between hard and soft materials, between heterogeneous hard materials, between heterogeneous soft materials, between biotic and abiotic materials, and various other types of complex interfaces—have led to breakthrough advances in electronics, computer, mechanical, aerospace, energy, and health care sectors. This interdisciplinary research initiates fundamental studies on understanding interfaces between materials that approach their ultimate (smallest) thickness limit.}

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_{Nuclear security has become very important both domestically and internationally. The ability to monitor port-of-entry, to track fissile material across international borders, to properly safeguard the nation’s nuclear weapon stockpile, and to develop nuclear counterterrorism measures all require innovative technology and technical expertise in special nuclear material (SNM) detection.}

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_{The University of Illinois has a long history of studying sound—pioneering sound-on-film, computer music, bioacoustics, hearing research, and speech studies within The Grainger College of Engineering and across campus. As a multifaceted science that is still not fully understood by any one discipline yet, the academic study and exploitation of sound is extremely broad, as are new applications.}

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_{The nuclear industry and homeland security establishments have an urgent need to continuously push the state of the art to develop new, advanced, and nuclear-grade digital control and cyber security technologies. Due to its existing expertise in nuclear engineering, and in digital and cyber security, the University of Illinois is uniquely positioned to develop a national center for digital instrumentation and control, and for cyber security for nuclear-specific applications.}

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