ECE Faculty Projects Funded by MIPS Contract Awards

ECE faculty are associated with five new Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) contract awards. The MIPS program provides matching funding for university-based research projects that help companies develop new products.

Professor Mark Shayman (ECE/ISR) is working with NetImmune, Inc. of Germantown, Md., to develop a high-speed prototype platform in a real network environment to detect and prevent Distributed Denial of Service and intrusion attacks. While current systems can take more than a half hour to identify a network attack, NetImmune's solution can detect an attack within seconds to a few minutes, helping to prevent substantial damage from occurring. The total projected budget for this project is $272,176.

Professors Gilmer Blankenship, Neil Goldsman (ECE/ISR), and Martin Peckerar are working with TRX Systems, Inc., Lanham, Md., to develop a fire safe locator system that can centrally monitor the location, vital signs, and other situational data of first responders, both indoors and outdoors. The total projected budget for this project is $202,762.

Dr. Peckerar is also working with LaserLink Technology, LLC, to develop high performance Field Programmable Analog Arrays (FPAAs) and Field Programmable Mixed-Signal Arrays (FPMAs). Application areas include most areas of analog and mixed signal design, including data acquisition and integrated signal conditioning and processing for industrial, automotive, medical, sensor and communications markets. The total projected budget for this project is $164,378.

ECE Professor Mario Dagenais is working with Maxion Technologies, Inc., to develop a semiconductor laser for sensing chemicals. The initial target market will be natural gas leak detection from residential lines. Future applications could include medical diagnostics and therapeutics, homeland defense, real-time industrial process controls, environmental monitoring, and combustion monitoring. The total projected budget for this project is $94,500.

Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR) and Assistant Research Scientist Nelson X. Liu (ISR) are working with CI Technologies of Frederick, Md. Liu and Baras are developing an alternative emergency wireless communication service for commercial users and first responders that enables cell phone carriers to switch calls to work over satellite links during emergencies, using CI Technologies' gateway protocol software. The project will utilize the unique expertise of the HyNET center in this area.

More information can be found at: http://www.mips.umd.edu/Rounds/round_36.html.

Published September 1, 2005