Electrical and Computer Engineering

People, papers and presentations Jun 29, 2020

Topics to be discussed are agriculture, energy, women’s health and plastics.

Purifying water with a partly coated gold nanoparticle

Rice's Naomi Halas has collaborated with Yale University engineers on the creation of a light-activated nanoparticle for clearing water of pollutants. The research is part of an effort by NEWT, the Rice-based Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology-Enabled Water Treatment.

Fluorocarbon bonds are no match for light-powered nanocatalyst

Rice University engineers have created a light-powered catalyst that can break the strong chemical bonds in fluorocarbons, a group of synthetic materials that includes persistent environmental pollutants.

NSF RAPID grant supports COVID-19 'computational pipeline'

Lydia Kavraki wins a NSF Rapid Response Research grant to help identify SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins for vaccine development.

Rice engineers offer smart, timely ideas for AI bottlenecks

Rice researchers demonstrate methods to design data-centric hardware and co-designing hardware with machine-learning algorithms that can improve energy efficiency in artificial intelligence hardware.

New tool helps nanorods stand out

Rice scientists introduce an open-source method to simplify nanoparticle analysis using scanning electron microscope images.

Rice team makes tiny, magnetically powered neural stimulator

Rice University neuroengineers have created a tiny surgical implant that can electrically stimulate the brain and nervous system without using a battery or wired power supply.

Three Rice students receive Hertz Fellowships

The Hertz Fellowship is as prestigious as it is selective: Only 16 fellows each year are admitted to the program, which funds five years of graduate research and offers lifelong professional support through the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation.

Rice's COVID-19 research fund awards final grants

The Rice University COVID-19 Research Fund Oversight and Review Committee funds nine more faculty teams working to mitigate the effects of the new coronavirus.

Blood flow recovers faster than brain in micro strokes

Work by a Rice neurobiologist shows that increased blood flow to the brain is not an accurate indicator of neuronal recovery after a microscopic stroke.

Kavraki earns top computer science honor

Rice computer scientist Lydia Kavraki has been honored for her foundational contributions to the discipline with this year’s ACM/AAAI Allen Newell Award.

Early Bird uses 10 times less energy to train deep neural networks

Rice engineers have found a way to train deep neural networks for a fraction of the energy required today. Their Early Bird method finds key network connectivity patterns early in training.

Rice faculty part of Baylor Superfund program

A $10 million federal grant establishes a center to study how toxic chemicals from Superfund sites impact preterm births.

Researchers solve 'link discovery' problem for terahertz data networks

When you open a laptop, a router can quickly locate it and connect it to the local Wi-Fi network. That ability, known as link discovery, is a basic element of any wireless network, and now a team of engineering researchers from Rice University and Brown University has developed a way to do that with terahertz radiation, the high-frequency waves that could one day make for ultrafast wireless data transmission.

Rice awards first COVID-19 research grants

The Rice University COVID-19 Research Fund Oversight and Review Committee announced it will support projects to develop affordable diagnostic tools, seals to maximize the efficiency of surgical masks, a system to identify signs of the coronavirus in Houston wastewater and methods to ensure voter safety this fall.