EE Connections: Spring 1998

Newsletter of the Department of Electrical Engineering

Feature Stories

Department Poised to Become National Leader in Undergraduate Research Opportunities
Cutting-Edge Digital Signal Processing Research

Department Poised to Become National Leader in Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Pictured: Student participants from the RITE Site program last summer, at the outdoor luncheon following the RITE Site Fair.

The Department will launch its Maryland Engineering Research Internship Teams (MERIT) program this summer, building upon the already successful undergraduate research program initiated last summer.

The MERIT program will merge the existing Research Internships in Telecommunications Engineering (RITE) program, which will be expanded, with the newly-created Microelectronics Research Collaboration Program (MRCP), giving the department one of the most comprehensive undergraduate research programs in the country.

The MERIT program, supported through funding from the National Science Foundation and the Army Research Laboratory, offers students the opportunity to engage in cutting-edge, team-based research in the broad areas of telecommunications and microelectronics. Students typically work in teams of 2-3, and are supervised jointly by both faculty members and graduate students.
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Cutting-Edge Digital Signal Processing Research

Pictured: Liu’s fractal-based scheme for detecting cancer in digital mammograms. (left) The original mammogram, (center) segmented, and (right) with cancer detected.

Advances in Digital Signal Processing (DSP) are the key to the future of communications. Whether we are talking on the phone, browsing the internet, or watching TV, chances are that the signals we are receiving or sending are at some point being processed by a computer or digital processor. This processing usually means the signal is being maximized for clarity and speed—either on the sending end, the receiving end, or both. So as more and more data continues to travel through the same data lines, better ways of compressing and transmitting data must be developed, as well as faster and more efficient systems and paths to send them through.

Increasing and enhancing the efficiency and quality of digital signal processing is a major focus of research at Maryland. Prof. K. J. Ray Liu (EE/ISR), has been leading the research thrust in this emerging and important area since 1990. Since establishing the Digital Signal Processing Laboratory (DSPLAB) in 1993, Liu has directed a group of about 20 Ph.D. students and postdoctoral researchers working in three important areas: image and video technology, signal processing for wireless communications, and the design and implementation of signal processing systems.
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