15 of The Greatest Minds in Automobile Engineering Today Alumnus Andrew Farah is named one of Interesting Engineering's 15 of the greatest minds in automobile engineering today for his work with electric GM vehicles and autonomous driving. [Full Story] Battling Drone Ships with Anthony Uytingco Anthony Uytingco, a junior in Electrical Engineering, leads UM::Autonomy, Michigans RoboBoat team for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Internationals (AUVSI) RoboBoat Competition. Challenges for the boats include speeding around buoys, navigating a field of obstacles, staying in a precise formation, and docking based on an underwater pinger. [Full Story] Professor Emeritus Ribbens Publishes 8th Edition of Understanding Automotive Electronics William Ribbens, professor emeritus of electrical engineering and computer science, recently published an 8th edition of his textbook Understanding Automotive Electronics, which adds information on the latest in automotive technology, including autonomous vehicles, camera systems, hybrid control, and software networks [Full Story] Andrew Farah: Evolution of a Career, Computers, and Cars Andrew Farah (BSE CE 1982; MSE Electrical Science 1984), Chief Technology Architect for Autonomous Vehicles at General Motors, talks about the automotive electronics landscape in the last 40 years, from stand-alone micro-controllers to highly distributed networked ecosystems. Nowhere are these changes more evident than as companies move quickly to capitalize on the disruptive opportunities of autonomous vehicles. [Full Story] UM::Autonomy Competes with Brand New Boat Design The UM::Autonomy team brought their latest autonomous boat, called Thurman, to participate in the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Foundation Roboboat competition. This year, they managed to simplify the code running the boat, changed their design to a more stable model, and added a dedicated business team to run their promotional material. [Full Story] New Student Team Builds Autonomous Vehicles New student team University of Michigan Intelligent Ground Vehicle (UMIGV) has spent much of its first year organizing and fundraising, and is now building a prototype autonomous vehicle. The team is led by CE student and co-founder Adarash Mishra. [Full Story] Need a job? How about engineering a driverless car? As Michigan accelerates toward leadership in the emerging driverless car technology, industry experts say its workforce needs to catch up. Gov. Rick Snyder signed legislation in December allowing the public to buy and use fully self-driving cars when they are available. Jessy Grizzle, the director of Michigan Robotics, said the problem of finding talent in self-driving cars lies in the lack of integrated capability to develop the industry. But that is also where the solution lies. [Full Story] UM::Autonomy Makes a Strong Finish at RobotBoat Competition The UM::Autonomy team took 6th place in the world at this years RoboNation RoboBoat Competition, where teams build autonomous, robotic boats to navigate and race through an aquatic obstacle course. The boat is completely designed and programmed by the students each year. [Full Story] ECE alumnus is making unmanned flight safe Raja Sengupta (MSE PhD EE:S 91, 95), a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Berkeley and co-founder of the startup company Responsible Robotics, heads a team spun out of the Cal Unmanned Aviation Lab that is creating new technologies that enable drone operators to easily comply with emerging regulations. To foster the safe development of a new industry, drone manufacturers, enthusiasts and regulators are trying to strike the right balance between access and accountability. Responsible Robotics has launched several products to meet that need. [Full Story] Why experts worry about the Tesla crash Jason Corso told the Detroit Free Press that Tesla's recent autopilot crash is "not a major setback, but an indication of the work still to do." The crash, which resulted in one fatality, occured when neither the automated system nor the driver recognized the white side of the semi-truck against a brightly lit sky. [Full Story] Tesla crash raises concerns about autonomous vehicle regulation The fatal crash of a Tesla Motors Inc Model S in Autopilot mode has turned up pressure on auto industry executives and regulators to ensure that automated driving technology is deployed safely. Jason Corso says the product is meant to be a beta test, and that the crash is a wake-up call to a need for significant further study. [Full Story] An Award Winning Radar System for Collision Avoidance and Imaging Armin Jam, doctoral student in ECE, took first place in the student paper competition at the 2016 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (AP-S) for his paper, "A Horizontally Polarized Beam-Steerable Antenna for Sub-millimeter-wave Polarimetric Imaging and Collision Avoidance Radars," co-authored by his advisor, Prof. Kamal Sarabandi. Armins research is focused on the development of a sub-millimeter-wave (sub-MMW) radar system for the next generation of navigation and imaging sensors. [Full Story] Audrow Nash Earns NSF Fellowship for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Research Audrow Nash, a Master's student in EE:Systems, has been awarded an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship for his work developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to monitor biogas emissions in landfills. [Full Story] The Future of Data Science: Kicking Off U-Ms Proactive Step into an Exploding Field Researchers from around the nation gathered at Rackham on October 6 to celebrate the official launch of Michigans $100M Data Science Initiative. Central to this program is the new Michigan Institute for Data Science (MIDAS), which aims to make sense of the massive datasets researchers in every field now have at their disposal. The symposium, titled The Future of Data Science: A Convergence of Academia, Industry, and Government, was an all-day event featuring representatives of many major industries and academic institutions. [Full Story] Building Better RoboBoats: UM::Autonomy Takes Third at International Competition Autonomous vehicles are in hot demand right now, and thats just as true at sea. UM::Autonomy designs, programs, and builds their own autonomous boat every year for the annual RobotBoat competition. This year the team took third prize. [Full Story] Steven Parkison Earns NSF Fellowship to Design Tools for the Future of Autonomous Cars Steven Parkison, Ph.D. student in Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received an NSF Fellowship to support his research on machine learning for autonomous vehicles. He is working with Prof. Ryan Eustice as part of the Next Generation Vehicle (NGV) project, a partnership between Ford Motor Company and researchers at the University of Michigan and State Farm Insurance to develop the autonomous vehicles of the future. Michigans principal investigators, Profs. Eustice and Edwin Olson, are taking a leading role on sensing and decision-making. [Full Story] New Michigan-Saudi Arabia Collaboration Promises Exciting New Research - Beginning with the Auto Industry A new collaborative research center, called the Center of Excellence for Microwave Sensor Technology, has been established between ECE faculty and Saudi Arabias King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). The Center will be a major site for research in microwave sensor technology, with the first projects focusing on autonomous vehicles and novel approaches to electric vehicle charging. [Full Story] EECS Alums are Flying High with Drone Startup Skyspecs SkySpecs, the startup that develops and produces autonomous aerial vehicles for commercial and industrial use, continues to grow within the drone industry. The founders recently won the first place prize of $500,000 in the Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition and joined a four-month accelerator program in New York City. [Full Story] |