Fellowship Projects

2022 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Zhixian Deng (Report)

Project Topic: Multi-function receiver array with multiple interferences suppression in CMOS technology for mm-wave applications

Impact Statement: It is a great honor for me to receive the 2022 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award, which supports my research work and will encourage me in the future academic career. I plan to make my research benefit for the life of human being after I finish my Ph. D project. Finally, I would like to thank my supervisor prof. Dr. Xun Luo for the guidance and encouragement during my research.

Tzu-Yuan Huang (Report)

Project Topic: Energy efficient, linear, and wideband mm-wave transceiver front-end for next-generation wireless communication systems.

Impact Statement: I am honored to have been awarded the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship and am thrilled to explore the endless possibilities of next-generation wireless communication systems. I am eager to apply the techniques and knowledge I acquire through this fellowship to contribute towards advancing communication applications in academia and industry. Further, I look forward to working closely with MTT-S and collaborating with experts in this field to make impactful contributions.

Divya Jayasankar (Report)

Project Topic: Terahertz Schottky diode harmonic mixers

Impact Statement: I want to thank IEEE MTT-S for awarding the graduate fellowship. I am honoured to receive this prestigious award. It profoundly impacted my research career and helped me broaden my horizon. Upon graduation, I intend to pursue a career in academia and focus on developing supra-THz electronics for space instrumentation.

Muhammad Ibrahim Wasiq Khan (Report)

Project Topic: Towards battery-less THz transceivers with physical layer security for ultra-miniaturized platforms.

Impact Statement: I would like to sincerely thank the MTT-S for this prestigious fellowship award in support of my Ph.D. research work. It is an honor for me that the MTT-S recognizes my research, which has increased my motivation and confidence to pursue more challenging problems. I look forward to further contributing to the MTT-S through exciting microwave research in integrated mm- Wave/THz transceivers.

Woosol Lee (Report)

Project Topic: Highly efficient mmWave based far-field wireless power transfer system using metaconductors and metamaterials.

Impact Statement: This is a great honor to be one of the winners of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) graduate fellowship award. This fellowship award has encouraged my confidence and motivation to keep pursuing my research, and it also has provided me an opportunity to attend the IMS 2022 and have close interactions with many colleagues in the field.

Harrison Lees (Report)

Project Topic: Reconfigurable integrated devices for compact terahertz systems.

Impact Statement: It has been an honor to be a recipient of the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship in 2022. Through this award I was able to make the most out of my research experience through conference experiences, which inspired me to continue my research journey. The research supported by this fellowship has already supported one conference publication, which was selected as a keynote presentation, and as the project continues, hopefully a future journal publication as well.

 Zheng Liu (Report)

Project Topic: A frequency agnostic beamforming system with non-uniform array geometry and wideband transmitter for mm-wave wireless links.

Impact Statement: This award not only granted me the valuable opportunity to attend various MTT-S conferences such as IMS2022 where I can engage and learn from some of the most prominent experts in my field, ensuring that my research stays current and relevant. More importantly, it has also been a great boost to my inspiration and confidence in continuing research in mmWave/THz technologies for my future pursuits.

 Maxim Masyukov (Report)

Project Topic: Terahertz on-wafer metrology for future space applications.

Impact Statement: I want to thank the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship board for providing me an opportunity to lead this project and my advisors for their encouragement and support.

 Mattia Mengozzi (Report)

Project Topic: Broadband digital predistortion of efficient multiple-input RF power amplifiers exploiting optimization and machine learning techniques.

Impact Statement: The MTT-S Graduate Fellowship provided an excellent opportunity for me to expand upon my PhD research by exploring a different application of the core concept. With the support of the fellowship, I was able to explore multiple research avenues, which yielded noteworthy results and allowed me to present my work at IMS 2022 and 2023. These achievements were highly rewarding and significantly contributed to my personal and professional growth.

MuhibUr Rahman (Report)

Project Topic: Simultaneous two-dimensional tuning using non-linear transmission lines

Impact Statement: Receiving the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award was a true honor. Being chosen as one of the recipients increased my motivation and confidence in continuing my research. It’s been a fantastic experience and opened up new opportunities for me including the attendance of IMS 2022 held at Denver that was supported by MTT-S. I look forward to continuing my contribution to the IEEE MTT Society.

Sam Razavian (Report)

Project Topic: Highly efficient integrated THz pulse and CW radiators and receivers for broadband sensing, imaging, and Communication applications.

Impact Statement: I must thank the MTT-S community for selecting me for this Graduate fellowship. This prestigious award is a great honor for me, and further motivates me to contribute to this research domain. I am going to start my career in industry to learn more about this field in a different environment than academia. Hopefully, with my experience in academia and the knowledge I gain in industry, I can contribute more to the field of microwave and circuit design and keep on innovating.

Davi V. Q. Rodrigues (Report)

Project Topic: Towards beamsteering microwave topologies for passive sensing applications.

Impact Statement: It was a great honor for me to receive the 2022 IEEE MTT-S Tom Brazil Fellowship Award. This prestigious recognition has motivated me to continue pushing the boundaries of the RF/microwave engineering field. Also, I sincerely appreciate the IEEE MTT Society for the support and for sponsoring my attendance to the IMS 2022. I plan to contribute actively to MTT-S efforts in promoting the RF/microwave engineering field and its applications.

2022 AWARDEES: MEDICAL CATEGORY

Behnam Arzhang (Report)

Project topic: Optical diffraction and delectrophoretic analysis of cells using cytometer.

Impact Statement: TBA. It is an honour to be one of the recipients of the IEEE MTT-S graduate fellowship. This award has boosted my confidence and motivation to keep pursuing my research. Regarding my future career, I am planning to work in industry to gain some experience, and then return to academia, where I can contribute more to the Biomedical community.

Aditya Gupta (Report)

Project topic: Design and implementation of energy-efficient millimeter-wave transmitter architecture at 61 GHz in 22FDSOI CMOS process for sub-mm localization of body-worn electromyography (EMG) sensor nodes.

Impact Statement: Being conferred the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award for Medical Applications is an exceptional distinction. As a recipient, my motivation and confidence in pursuing my doctoral studies have been significantly strengthened, leading to a more rewarding academic journey. I express my profound gratitude to the esteemed committee members for their unwavering commitment and the remarkable influence they have in nurturing students’ career development.

2021 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Sohail Ahasan (Report)

Project Topic: A 60GHz > 50Gbps phased-array transceiver chipset using harmonic reject/image reject (HR/IR) mixer-based carrier aggregation.

Impact Statement: I would like to express my gratitude to the entire MTT-S community for supporting my research giving me the opportunity to attend 2021 International Microwave Symposium.

Francesca Benassi (Report)

Project Topic: Millimeter-wave wireless power transfer system for wearable devices.

Impact Statement: Receiving the MTT-S Fellowship Award has been a great honor and it has given me an excellent opportunity to further extend my research activity as a young researcher with enthusiasm and dedication. I am deeply and sincerely thankful to the MTT Society for this prestigious award that has been a source of inspiration for my future research and goals.

Milad Frounchi (Report)

Project Topic: A mm-Wave frequency-agile high-image-reject SiGe receiver for atmospheric sensing

Impact Statement: It is an honor to be one of the recipients of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) graduate fellowship award and to be recognized by a leading community in my professional field. This award has boosted my confidence and motivation to keep pursuing my research, and it also provided me an opportunity to attend the IMS 2021 and have close interactions with many colleagues in the field. Regarding future career, I am planning to work for industry to gain some experience, and hopefully return to academia after a couple of years, where I can contribute more to the microwave community.

Jinqun Ge (Report)

Project Topic: Electrically tunable miniaturized frequency selective surface with smart engineered substrate.

Impact Statement: Receiving the IEEE MTT-S graduate fellowship is a true honor, and it has given me the confidence, motivation, and visibility that I needed to keep pursuing revolutionary research and connecting with others. I am very grateful to the IEEE MTT-S community for the recognition and support. I look forward to participating in future events hosted by the IEEE MTT-S society.

Intikhab Hussain (Report)

Project Topic: Multi-functional transceiver architectures for future wireless systems.

Impact Statement: It is such an honor to receive the prestigious MTT-S Graduate Fellowship for the year 2021. This achievement has given me the confidence to interact with other more experienced scientists from all over the world, thus broadening my scientific horizons. I look forward to continuing my contribution to the IEEE MTT Society.

Mohamed I. Ibrahim (Report)

Project Topic: Cryo-CMOS controller for solid-state color-center qubits towards scalable quantum processors.

Impact Statement: I would like to sincerely thank the MTT-S for this prestigious fellowship award in support of my Ph.D. research work. It is an honor for me that the MTT-S recognizes my research, which has given me increased motivation and confidence in my research work. I look forward to further contributing to the MTT-S through exciting microwave research in integrated quantum systems and wireless/wireline transceivers.

Lei Li (Report)

Project Topic: AlN/GaN/AlN HEMT MMICs for applications above 100 GHz.

Impact Statement: The recognition of the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award has strengthened my confidence greatly to pursue a career in academia or industry. Moreover, the financial support of this fellowship allows me more opportunities to travel to other universities for device measurement, and most importantly, meeting and learning from the experts in this field.

Xin Liu (Report)

Project Topic: Spatial digital predistortion techniques for massive MIMO systems.

Impact Statement: I am truly honored to receive the 2021 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award, and I would like to present my gratitude to the IEEE MTT society. This Fellowship helped me to complete my doctoral projects and encouraged me to continue my research in the design and linearization of power amplifiers. It also helped me to build up confidence in being an independent researcher. I look forward to attending more interesting activities hosted by MTT-S and presenting more meaningful research works in the future.

Minh Q. Nguyen (Report)

Project Topic: High angular resolution method for coherent FMCW MIMO radar networks.

Impact Statement: I am truly honored to receive the 2021 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship. I deeply appreciate this prestigious award from the MTT-Society. Although I did not have the chance to attend the IMS 2021 due to the pandemic, I have submitted a paper for IMS 2022 and get accepted. Therefore, I hope I can join IMS 2022 to talk and discuss with other researchers around the world.

Moein Noferesti (Report)

Project Topic: Application of ferromagnetic/ferroelectric material to design reconfigurable components for multi-parameter smart millimeter-wave systems.

Impact Statement: It was indeed a true honor to receive the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award. Being selected as one of the recipients significantly boosted my motivation and confidence to continue my research activity. It has been a great experience and has opened interesting opportunities for me. I would like to acknowledge the committee members effort and the impact they are making on students experience and career development.

Stavros Vakalis (Report)

Project Topic: Millimeter-wave sparse digital array for imaging at more than 250 frames per second.

Impact Statement: Receiving the 2021 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship has been an honor for me and a milestone of my graduate studies. I would like to thank again the MTT-S again for selecting me for this award, and the recognition and support they have provided. This award has encouraged me to remain active inside the MTT society and pursue a career in microwave engineering.

Bingzheng Yang (Report)

Project Topic: Wideband high data-rate digital transmitter array with enhanced peak/average efficiency in CMOS technology for wireless applications.

Impact Statement: It is a great honor for me to receive the 2021 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award, which supports my research work and will encourage me in the future academic career. This award provides the opportunity to meet the best researchers across the globe working on cutting-edge technology. In the future, I would like to pursue the academic career. I plan to continue my research to further develop the high data-rate high efficiency digital TX for wireless applications.

2021 AWARDEES: MEDICAL CATEGORY

Yingying Fan (Report)

Project Topic: A thermal actuation/sensing array through efficient and localized heating of magnetic nanoparticles for tumor ablation and neural stimulation.

Impact Statement: I am truly honored and grateful to receive the fellowship at the early stage (2nd year) of my PhD journey. It offered me the chance to attend my first IMS in person and got recognized at the Awards Banquet which was unique due to the COVID pandemic.

2020 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Amir Afshani (Report)

Project topic: Investigating and proposing novel approaches in exploiting ferrite nonreciprocity to demonstrate a high-power full-duplex transceiver for 5G and future wireless systems.

Impact Statement: Receiving the IEEE MTT-S graduate fellowship for 2020 has boosted my confidence and encouraged me to stay in the academic environment. Also, now I am more eager to contribute to the MTT society. I look forward to participating in future events hosted by the IEEE MTT-S society.

Aline Eid (Report)

Project topic: Fully-printed, 5G-powered wireless sensing modules for perpetual IoT.

Impact Statement: This award was a true honor, it has given me the confidence, motivation and visibility that I needed to keep pursuing revolutionary research and connecting with others in and outside my field. Even though we did not have the chance to attend IMS 2020 in person due to the pandemic, the support of the fellowship allowed me to develop my research and networking skills through extensive meetings with companies and collaborations with teams from different areas.

João Gomes (Report)

Project topic: Nonlinear modeling of GaN HEMTs for RF and microwave applications.

Impact Statement: Receiving the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award was certainly a motivation boost that re-enforced my already positive perspective on my PhD work plan and for that I am truly grateful.

Tengfei Hao (Report)

Project topic: Fourier domain mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator for multi-band chirped microwave waveform generation.

Impact Statement: I am truly honored and grateful to the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) for the recognition and support. The award is a great motivation to continue my research in microwave photonic signal generation, photonic-assisted microwave frequency measurement and integrated microwave photonics. I look forward to have more contribution to the advances in this field and to the IEEE MTT-S society.

Elif Kaya (Report)

Project topic: A CMOS microwave broadband adaptive dual-comb spectroscopy system with AI calibration for liquid chemical detection.

Impact Statement: I would like to express my sincere gratitude for being selected to receive a 2020 MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award; it boosted my motivation and increased my confidence to more expand my research experience further and pursue a career in the field of microwave engineering within a very competitive scientific community. Once again, thank you for the recognition and support, and I look forward to being more involved in the MTT-S society and hopefully being able to continue contributing to the advances in microwave engineering. I strongly recommend all young researchers in the field apply for IEEE MTT-S Graduate Student Fellowship.

Ali Kourani (Report)

Project topic: A reconfigurable 60 MHz-30 GHz PLL-less ultra-low-noise frequency synthesizer for 5G and IoT applications.

Impact Statement: The MTT-S Graduate Fellowship has been a great opportunity for pursuing my challenging interdisciplinary research project. The project spans circuits, MEMS, electromagnetics, and acoustics. Even though it was a tough year facing COVID-19, the support of the fellowship allowed me to tapeout a CMOS chip and publish in top tier IEEE journals.

Jing-Yu Lin (Report)

Project topic: Multiple-mode cavity resonator inspired waveguide circuits using emerging technologies for future communication systems.

Impact Statement: It is my great honor to receive the recognition of 2020 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Awards. This fellowship directly impacted my recent publications, and other latest research results of my Ph. D. project are also underway.  Moreover, it encourages me to further explore the unknown area in the field of waveguide multiple-mode resonators. It truly helps me to complete my doctoral research studies.

Aurea Edna Moreno-Mojica (Report)

Project topic: Advanced optimization based on surrogate modeling and space mapping techniques for computationally efficient modeling and design optimization of coupled signal and power integrity (SI-PI) analysis of high-speed interconnects and power delivery networks.

Impact Statement: I am currently working towards my PhD at a private University in Mexico as a full-time student. The MTT-S Fellowship has allowed me to focus completely on my studies and not worry about paying tuition this year. The Fellowship also allowed me to attend several technical conferences, which were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nguyen L.K. Nguyen (Report)

Project topic: A wideband, high output power amplifier from W-band and above.

Impact Statement: I am truly honored to receive the 2020 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship. I deeply appreciate this prestigious award from the MTT-Society. Although I did not have the chance to attend the IMS 2020 due to the pandemic, it is still a great chance for me to talk and discuss with other fellow recipients. The opportunity has provided me with great technical knowledge and new colleagues around the world.

Daniel Rodriguez (Report)

Project topic: A low-power and low-cost monostatic beamforming radar array based on a novel 2-port transceiver chain using mutually injection-locked oscillators.

Impact Statement: It was my great honor to be one of the recipients of the 2020 MTT-S Graduate Fellowship. The generous financial support helped me to focus on my research during this difficult time. This prestigious recognition also encouraged me to work even more intensively on my research topic and to pursue my future career in the microwave engineering field.

Yiyang Shu (Report)

Project topic: Synthesized multi-mode frequency source with ultra-wideband and low phase noise in silicon technology for mmW and sub-THz multi-band application.

Impact Statement: I am honored and grateful to receive the recognition of IEEE Microwave Theory and Technique Society for the 2020 Graduate Fellowship Award in support of my research work. It was a great motivation to continue my research and obtain a valuable research experience. The award also provided an opportunity to attend International Microwave Symposium 2020 and meet the best researchers across the globe working on cutting-edge technology.

Dmitry Zhirihin (Report)

Project topic: Effective control of electromagnetic waves through topological microwave metamaterials.

Impact Statement: I would like to thank IEEE MTT-S for choosing me as a recipient of the Graduate Fellowship. The Award extremely helped me during doctoral school and owing to it I have recently defended my Ph.D. thesis. The receipt of the Fellowship gave me confidence in myself and granted the opportunity to expand my knowledge in electromagnetic topological structures. The MTT-S Fellowship motivated me to start interacting with industry in the field of topologically robust waveguides that I am already doing.

2020 AWARDEES: MEDICAL CATEGORY

Xiaotian Du (Report)

Project topic: Broadband electrical sensing of nuclear morphology and DNA content in a single live cell.

Impact Statement: I think the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship was very helpful on my way of becoming an independent researcher. It not only helped me complete a project, but also made me realize that I would be able to overcome many more challenges, and built up more confidence in myself to achieve more in my future career.

Milad Mirzaee (Report)

Project topic: Early skin cancer detection: from desktop imaging setup to real-time handheld device.

Impact Statement: I am honored and grateful to receive the recognition of IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society for the 2020 Graduate Fellowship Award for Medical Applications. Even though I did not have the opportunity to attend the International Microwave symposium 2020, this award allowed me to continue my research project on developing ultra-wideband millimeter-wave antennas specifically designed for high-resolution medical imaging applications. I plan to pursue my research in either industry or academia after graduation.

2019 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Alberto Maria Angelotti (Report)

Project Topic: Broadband linearization of Gallium Nitride RF amplifiers with a state-space behavioral modeling approach.

Impact statement: The MTT-S Graduate Fellowship has been a great opportunity for pursuing a challenging but rewarding research project that ultimately helped my personal and professional growth. Even though I did not have the possibility of attending IMS 2019 in person, the support of the fellowship allowed me to develop several original research lines, resulting in significant publications in the field.

Spyridon Nektarios Daskalakis (Report)

Project Topic: Low power backscatter sensors for low cost precision agriculture applications.

Impact statement: I would like to thank the MTT-S for selecting me as one of its graduate fellows. The award is a great recognition of my research about next-generation long-range, ambient backscatter sensors. The travel grant for attending IMS-2019 conference gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge on electromagnetics with new ideas on RFID systems. Also, during the IMS I met with talented researchers from all over the world and I had the opportunity to exchange opinions and advice about new technologies.

Daniel Gaydos (Report)

Project Topic: Adaptive wireless communication systems using software-defined radio arrays.

Impact statement: The MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award exposed me to relevant research at IMS 2019, helped me form research plans and timelines, and greatly improved my research and organization skills. I feel that the award has meaningfully impacted my confidence in research and my career decisions. I am grateful to the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society for the recognition and opportunities this fellowship has afforded me.

Xiaoqiang Gu (Report)

Project Topic: Enabling high-efficiency far-field radiofrequency energy harvesting for 5G-compatible IoT applications.

Impact statement: I would like to express my gratitude to IEEE MTT-S. It is a great honor that my Ph.D. work and efforts can be recognized by the prestigious MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Program. This award has strengthened my confidence to overcome challenges in future research work. It also offers me more encouragement to pursue a career in the field of microwave engineering.

Mahdi Javid (Report)

Project Topic: Hybrid CMOS/GaN switch-mode RF power amplifiers for base-station applications.

Impact statement: I am truly honored to be a recipient of MTT-S Graduate Fellowship and would like to express my sincere gratitude toward MTT society for this prestigious award, their recognition and support. This award has elevated my career and research and also granted me the wonderful opportunity to attend IMS/RFIC 2019 to further my knowledge, and network with the many talented members of our technical community. I find the impact of this award on my life and career timeless and would like to thank MTT-S again for this incredible opportunity.

Sensen Li (Report)

Project Topic: Silicon-based mm-wave outphasing transmitters and power amplifiers achieving efficiency enhancement at power back-off for 5G communications.

Impact Statement: I am honored and grateful to receive the MTT-S graduate fellowship, which offered me the chance to attend IMS learning the cutting-edge microwave technologies, and further motivated me to pursue a career in microwave engineering. Being a member of the MTT-S, I really appreciate all the opportunities and platforms the society has created, which connects our colleagues together, and facilitates new ideas and technologies.

Arya Menon (Report)

Project Topic: Towards pactive (passive + active) sensing for security applications.

Impact Statement: Receiving the 2019 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship is a true honor and I recommend all graduate students in microwave engineering to apply for it. The fellowship provided me with the opportunity to attend the 2019 International Microwave Symposium at Boston, where I was able to connect with other researchers in the field and broaden my professional network. I also had the opportunity to interact with undergraduate students of Project Connect and share my experience as a graduate student.

Aravind Nagulu (Report)

Project Topic: Integrated non-reciprocal components: From RF/mmWave communication and radar to quantum information processing.

Impact Statement: I am immensely grateful to the IEEE MTT-S society for granting me the IEEE MTT-S graduate fellowship for 2019. Receiving this fellowship is a great recognition for my work and will surely help me in achieving my academic career goals. Through this fellowship, I got the opportunity to attend IEEE IMS 2019, where I’ve demonstrated a full-duplex wireless link featuring a CMOS circulator. The interactions during the demo with technology leaders from both academia and industry have helped in gaining valuable insights into my research work. Once again, thank you.

Jingzhi Zhang (Report)

Project Topic: Design of high-performance multiband millimeter-wave integrated frequency synthesizer and phased-array transceivers for 5G communications.

Impact Statement: The recognition of the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship encourages me to further discover the unknown area in mm-wave wideband signal generation. And it allows me to complete my research project for my doctoral studies. I will continue my research career in academia to further develop mm-wave circuit architectures and discover their potential applications.

Milad Zolfagharloo Koohi (Report)

Project Topic: Reconfigurable acoustic filters employing electrostriction effect in multifunctional ferroelectrics.

Impact Statement: The IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship provided me with the opportunity to practice writing a proposal for my research, planning the project milestones, and leading it as a graduate student. Also, the MTT-S travel grant supported me to attend IMS 2019, where I presented my research to the field community and networked with talented researchers in academia as well as industry.

2019 AWARDEES: MEDICAL CATEGORY

Vigyanshu Mishra (Report)

Project topic: Wearable radio-frequency sensors for monitoring human body kinematics.

Impact Statement: MTT-S fellowship has provided significant impetus in further strengthening my decision to join academia as next step in my career. This award was an important driver in boosting my confidence and motivation to perform best possible research that could positively impact the society.

Hamed Rahmani (Report)

Project topic: A mm-sized wirelessly powered CMOS data transceiver for real-time signal acquisition and closed-loop modulation of human brain functions.

Impact Statement: I am truly honored to be recognized as one of the top students in the field of microwave engineering and to receive the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship. I believe this fellowship has improved the quality of my research, boosted the visibility of my research, and expanded my professional network by through attending IMS 2019 conference. I am deeply thankful to MTT-S society and I look forward to engaging in future IEEE MTT-S efforts for promoting the area of microwave engineering.

2018 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Mohamed Mounir Abdin (Report)

Project Topic: Additively manufactured packaged 75-110 GHz communication system

Impact statement: The MTT-S fellowship has significantly boosted my confidence in proposal and grant writing, as well as help me outline the overall research goals and timeline. It has significantly provided financial support for my doctoral study and granted me the opportunity to attend IMS 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and be exposed to the latest research and meet leading scientists and researchers.

Xue Bao (Report)

Project Topic: Radio frequency and microwave in biomedical applications

Impact statement: I was lucky to be one of the recipients of the 2018 MTT-S Graduate Student Fellowship Awards. With the budget provided, I was able to build a more stable and efficient measurement platform, which was integrated with the microwave system and suitable to provide a comfortable
environment for the biological materials under test. Additionally, I was able to purchase some
important materials and fabricate minimized devices for microwave bio-medical measurements.

Vikrant Chauhan (Report)

Project Topic: Multiphysical modeling and optimization of nonlinearities and thermal behavior in RF MEMS front-end components for mobile communication systems.

Impact statement: I gratefully acknowledge the funding of parts of this work by the IEEE MTT-S society has provided me through this Graduate fellowship. It has allowed me to gain a valuable research experience which has confirmed my interest to further my technical skills in microwave and mm-wave engineering. I strongly encourage any eligible person to apply for this scholarship and gain experience by meeting the industry and academic experts using the travel grant from IEEE MTT-S for attending the International Microwave Symposium (IMS).

Min-Yu Huang (Report)

Project Topic: Closed-loop multi-stage DSP-free beam-formers with full-field-of-view (Full-FoV) dynamic and autonomous unknown blocker rejection and signal tracking for mm-wave wideband MIMO transceiver system.

Impact statement: I am honored to receive the prestigious MTT-S Graduate Fellowship for the year 2018. The award is a great recognition of my research for the next-generation extreme-wideband ultra- low-latency communication networks. I believe that it will inspire myself to pursue and explore more advanced research fields and make future technology better. To further facilitate my ideas in real world, I will firstly work in industry, with the possibility of returning to academia in the future.

Hossein Jalili (Report)

Project Topic: Standing wave structures for high-power and wideband fully integrated mm-wave and terahertz radiator and phased arrays.

Impact statement: It was an honor and privilege to be awarded the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) graduate fellowship award and to be recognized by one of the leading communities in my professional field.  For me, it was a great opportunity to highlight my work and an affirmation of the significance of innovative research in forward-looking technologies like mm-wave and terahertz integrated circuits.

Babak Jamali (Report)

Project Topic: Integrated millimeter-wave and terahertz pulse receivers for wireless time transfer and broadband molecular spectroscopy.

Impact statement: I am truly honored to receive the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship allowed me to complete my research project during the last stage of my doctoral studies. It also provided me with the opportunity to travel to IMS 2018 and attend many intriguing presentations on the latest developments in microwave and millimeter-wave research. I appreciate the generosity of the MTT society and I hope to contribute more to the microwave community in the future.

Ahmed Kord (Report)

Project Topic: Magnet‐less circulators based on spatio‐temporal modulation of resonant three-port junctions for full-duplex communication systems.

Impact statement: I would like to express my sincere gratitude for being selected to receive a 2018 MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award. Such a recognition shall help me outstand in a competitive academic society to achieve my career goals. Once again, thank you.

Enrico Massoni (Report)

Project Topic: Innovative components in substrate integrated waveguide technology by 3D printing.

Impact statement: The recognition of the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship represented a milestone in my Ph.D career as a RF/Microwave Engineer. This achievement has given me fresh energies and stimulating incentives to face with the ultimate research challenges. In addition, it allowed me to spend an enriching period in the Canadian laboratory of Professor Ke Wu, exchanging and comparing ideas with brilliant colleagues of the MTT-S community.

Huizhen Jenny Qian (Report)

Project Topic: Mixed signal architecture of wideband phased-array transmitter with high efficiency and beam-steering resolution for high data-rate transmission.

Impact statement: The IEEE Graduate Fellowship Award encouraged me greatly to continue my research in RF integrated front end. This prestigious award brings me higher goal in my life to pursue excellence and innovation in Microwave Engineering field. I had the opportunity to introduce my work, and network with top professionals in International Microwave Symposium 2018.

Dakotah Jordan Simpson (Report)

Project Topic: Fully reconfigurable RF filters for multifunctional and multistandard RF front ends.

Impact statement: “I would like to sincerely thank the IEEE MTT-S for the recognition and for granting me the 2018 MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award. It was a great motivation to continue my research and it also helped me professionally. The travel grant allowed me to attend IMS 2018 in Philadelphia, where I was able to make connections, present my work, and further my education in microwave engineering.

2017 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

M. Mahdi Assefzadeh (Report)

Project Topic: A THz pulse-radiating array for long-range high-speed wireless communication and hyper-spectral imaging.

Impact statement: The IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship had a significant impact on my decision to choose an academic career. In a smaller scale than as a professor, the funding support from this fellowship helped me practice how to propose and lead a project. In addition, the travel grant from IEEE MTT-S for attending IMS 2017 created the opportunity to gain further exposure on my project and to network with the most talented researchers in the field of integrated mm-wave and THz systems.

Mustafa Bakr (Report)

Project Topic: Innovative solutions for adaptive transceiver front ends/mobile commutations for internet of things.

Impact statement: Receiving the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award was a great motivation to keep on the hard-smart work in the field of microwave filters and antennas. The generous financial support helped me to focus on my research and boosted up my confidence. I am grateful and thankful to the IEEE MTT-S Society for the award. I am also grateful and thankful to my parents, and supervisors (Prof Ian Hunter and Prof Wolfgang Bosch) for their encouragement and support. I believe in giving back and helping out in the community and the world.

Tammy Chang (Report)

Project Topic: Integrated solar and radio-frequency energy harvesting for the internet of everything.

Impact statement: I would like to express my gratitude to MTT-S for the research fellowship and for sponsoring my attendance to IMS 2017 in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the conference, I appreciated engaging with many experts in the research areas that I am interested in. The award has also supported my pursuit of the proposed research activities. This fellowship program has been a beneficial experience in my professional development.

Chandrakanth Reddy Chappidi (Report)

Project Topic: Generalized reconfigurable mm-Wave Tx architecture and antenna interface with active impedance synthesis.

Impact statement: I would like to thank the IEEE MTTS for granting me the Graduate Fellowship Award for the year 2017. This has really motivated me to pursue my career in wireless industry and think out-of-the-box for any research problem I encounter with. I would like to solve the highly impactful problems in the real world and make positive impact on our society that could last more than my lifetime.

Chen Jiang (Report)

Project Topic: Novel ultra-high speed terahertz communication system on silicon.

Impact statement: I really appreciate the MTT-S society for granting me the fellowship award and sponsoring me to work on such interesting project. Communication has been and will continue to be an important factor that changes people’s way of living. The pursuit of higher data rates also never ends. I have learnt and gain a lot from working on these challenging projects.

Souheil Nadri (Report)

Project Topic: High power submillimeter-wave varactor frequency multipliers based on quasi-vertical Schottky diodes.

Impact statement: The fellowship’s financial support helped me attend the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2017 in Honolulu, where I interacted with many professionals and industrial exhibitors. Upon my return from IMS, I decided to found an MTT-S student branch chapter at the University of Virginia. As of March 1st 2018, we have already hosted numerous speakers from academia and industry. In terms of my career goals, I am open to both academia and industry positions. I would like to expand my knowledge of microwaves and millimeter-wave to more devices (HBT, HEMT, etc) and circuit topologies. I am also interested in pursuing interdisciplinary research involving the field of photonics, heat transport, and materials science.

Valentina Palazzi (Report)

Project Topic: Novel compact zero-power wireless sensors based on the harmonic radar principle, featuring low environmental impact and high integrability, for the next generation IoT applications.

Impact statement: I was honored to receive such a prestigious prize. IEEE MTT-S Fellowship motivated me to actively take part in the MTT-S community and continue my career in academia, boosting my enthusiasm for the scientific research in the microwave field. Moreover, it gave me the confidence to interact with the other more experienced scientists from all over the world, thus broadening my scientific horizons.

Ali Pourghorban Saghati (Report)

Project Topic: Near-field microwave sensor for contact-less ultra-wide-band (UWB) dielectric spectroscopy.

Impact statement: Receiving the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award is an honor that has impacted my professional life in different ways. I believe the fact that the hard work is being recognized by highly talented people around the world, has increased my standard expectations of myself to even more expand my knowledge and experience in the field of microwave engineering. I hope I can have continual contribution to this field and to the IEEE MTT Society.

Negar Reiskarimian (Report)

Project Topic: Enabling fully-integrated magnetic-free non-reciprocal antenna interfaces by breaking lorentz reciprocity.

Impact statement: I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards IEEE MTT-S for the recognition and the support. I believe that the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship has boosted my career, improved the quality of my research and has enabled me to expand my professional network through participation in the IEEE IMS/RFIC 2017 conference. I am once again grateful to the IEEE MTT-S society for this award and I look forward to be more involved in the MTT-S efforts to promote the advances in microwave engineering.

Korkut Kaan Tokgoz (Report)

Project Topic: Active and passive device characterizations on CMOS for ultra-high data-rate millimeter-wave and sub-terahertz wireless transceivers.

Impact statement: It is a great honor that our research is recognized by IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) with Graduate Student Fellowship. This fellowship further encouraged me to walk through the path I have chosen. I strongly recommend all young researchers in the field to apply for IEEE MTT-S Graduate Student Fellowship which will further improve themselves as the case for me.

2017 AWARDEES: MEDICAL CATEGORY

Souvik Dubey

Project Topic: Flexible implant antenna for thermotherapeutic cancer treatment

Project Description: Radiation therapy and hyperthermia are two common procedures along with chemotherapy in current clinical practices to treat different type of cancers. Chemotherapy causes harmful and painful effects to patients and is usually considered for the last resort. Use of radiation therapy can lead to serious long-term side effects. On the contrary, hyperthermia treatment does not involve harmful radioactive radiation, and can be applied by several methods. One of the most common method is microwave tumor ablation, where a tumor is identified with imaging guidance and exposed to microwave energy by a thin microwave antenna placed into the tumor through surgical operation. The electromagnetic energy radiated by microwave source agitates the polar water molecules trapped in the tissues, which produces heat due to friction between the molecules. The major shortcoming of this approach is patient needs to undergo multiple surgeries to insert the microwave antenna probe into the tumor for every treatment. The proposed research will develop a new method for hyperthermia treatment using minimally invasive surgery. The aim of the research focuses on a study and development of biodegradable miniature flexible implant design to receive microwave energy for hyperthermia.

Elizaveta Motovilova (Report)

Project Topic: Metamaterial-inspired radiofrequency system design for human head imaging at ultra-high field strength MRI

Project Description: I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the IEEE MTT Society for the recognition of my work, which provided me with a strong motivation for further research in the proposed topic. Thanks to the sponsored trip to attend the IMS-2017 I had a chance to interact with many experts in the microwave field and expand my professional network. Moreover, the financial support provided allowed me to attend other conferences as well, where communication with MRI experts inspired me for new ideas and helped to establish new connections.

2016 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Himanshu Aggrawal (Report)

Project Topic: Next generation terahertz receivers and their applications

Impact statement: It has been a privilege and honor to have my research recognized by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) and bestow with a fellowship. This recognition not only promulgated my work but also igniting endless discussions with like-minded professionals, thus serendipitously cultivating to new ideas. I strongly recommend every young researcher to apply for this fellowship.

Juan Castro (Report)

Project Topic: Advanced additive manufacturing of 3D RF/microwave electronics based on novel electromagnetic nanocomposite materials

Impact statement: I would like to express my gratitude to the IEEE MTT-S for awarding this research proposal and sponsoring my attendance to the IMS 2016 in San Francisco, CA. The award allowed me to pursue the proposed research activities and to publish some peer-reviewed papers. I had the opportunity to present a paper during the conference while attending other technical presentations and conference events, also networking and sharing my work with other colleagues, it was an invaluable experience for my professional career.

Tolga Dinc (Report)

Project Topic: Rethinking of the antenna-circuit boundary for enabling millimeter-wave full-duplex wireless communication.

Impact statement: Receiving the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award was a great motivation for my research efforts to come up with innovative solutions to the challenging microwave research problems. I am grateful to the IEEE MTT-S society for this award which has improved the quality of my PhD research. This award has encouraged me further to pursue a career in the field of microwave engineering.

Marco Fantuzzi (Report)

Project Topic: A compact-size eco-compatible solution for simultaneous RF energy harvesting and data communication toward next generation UWB-based RFID systems

Impact statement: I think the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society Graduate Fellowship is one of the most prestigious recognition worldwide PhD students in the fields of RF and Microwave can yearn for. The possibility to win this recognition deeply boosted my self-confidence, further enhancing the value of my present and future research activity.

Nai-Chung Kuo (Report)

Project Topic: Design of extremely tiny RFID tags

Impact statement: I am grateful to receive the 2016 MTT-S graduate fellowship. This funding supported
me to attend IMS2016. In the symposium, I was exposed to the latest microwave techniques and
worldwide experts. More importantly, this prestigious fellowship guarantees an impressive resume for my
further pursue of a career in the design of RF integrated circuits and systems.

Fabian Wolfgang Lurz (Report)

Project Topic: Next generation ultra-low-power radar sensors and systems

Impact statement: I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the IEEE MTT-S for the support of my research activities through this prestigious MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award in 2016. This
recognition encouraged me to work even more intensively towards next generation ultralow-power radar systems and I am sure it will have a very positive impact on my future career.

Seyedeh-Shirin Montazeri (Report)

Project Topic: Theory and demonstration of novel ultra-low power low noise circuitry for cryogenically cooled applications

Impact statement: I have been extremely honored and grateful to be a recipient of the 2016 IEEE MTT-S graduate fellowship award. It has been a great motivation for me that my research achievements have been recognized by the MTT-S society and it has provided me the opportunity to connect with other researchers in the field and share ideas and experiences.

Zhengyu Peng (Report)

Project Topic: FMCW-interferometry hybrid radar sensor with continuous beam steering for motion tracking and vital sign measurement

Impact statement: It was my great honor to receive the 2016 Graduate Fellowship from the IEEE MTT-S. Though I missed the IMS 2016 in San Francisco due to family reasons, the generous financial support from this award help me focus on my research. This prestigious honor also gave me more confidence to stick to my research topic for my PhD and encouraged me to pursue my future career in microwave engineering field either in academia or industry.

Chi Van Pham (Report)

Project Topic: High power, ultra-wideband microwave passive elements with Multiphysics modeling

Impact statement: It was a great honor that I received the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award for 2016. This has encouraged me to expand RF/Microwave engineering research in practical applications. The award also provided me an opportunity to attend the IMS 2016 where I presented and reviewed the research project with researchers during technical sections and interacted with industrial exhibitors as well.

Arian Rahimi (Report)

Project Topic: Nanotechnology-inspired multi-layer conductors for high performance microwave passive components

Impact statement: Receiving the IEEE MTT society fellowship had a huge impact on my academic career as a graduate student as well as the future career. The prestigious fellowship was the greatest motivation as I found my research recognized by the society and continued the in-depth aspects of it. Also, the support that I received to attend IMS 2016 provided the opportunity to talk to industrial partners and decide on future career.

Alexey P. Slobozhanyuk (Report)

Project Topic: Near-field manipulations with microwave metamaterials in order to design highly efficient novel devices

Impact statement: I would like to thank IEEE MTT-S for the possibility to expand my knowledge in different aspects of microwave theory. The receipt of MTT-S scholarship was a very important indicator of my research progress and motivated me to continue my independent research career after Ph.D. in the field of microwave metamaterials.

Xue Wu (Report)

Project Topic: On-chip THz spectroscopy system

Impact statement: The IEEE MTT-S graduate fellowship provided me with the opportunity to attend IMS 2016 in San Francisco, CA. During the conference, I broadened the scope of my research by profound discussion with many colleagues in the field. Additionally, the financial support from the award gave me the courage to pursue difficult but fascinating ideas in the field of microwave engineering.

2016 AWARDEES: MEDICAL CATEGORY

Taiyun Chi (Report)

Project Topic: A CMOS multi-functional cellular thermal actuation/sensing array for reconfigurable localized cell heating and manipulation

Impact statement: It was my great honor to receive the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship for Medical Applications. This not only provided me the financial support to attend the IMS conference in San Francisco, but also allowed me to share my work and have technical discussions with the colleagues in the society. It is a great motivation to encourage me to tackle cutting-edge research problems in biomedical applications and come up with innovation solutions.

Yujia Peng (Report)

Project Topic: Development of Frequency Reconfigurable Wireless Power Scavenging System for the Telemetry of Self-sustainable Implantable Sensors

Impact statement: I am grateful to the IEEE MTT-S for the support of my research through the award of MTT-S graduate fellowship for Medical Application in 2016. This recognition allowed me a chance to attend IMS2016 that I obtained valuable experience meeting the experts from all over the world and was exposed to the latest academic research in microwave techniques. I was impressed by the development of the modern wireless communication system brought about by microwave technology in industrial exhibitions. My future plan is to be a design engineer in industry and make the cutting-edge technology in research into practical products.

2015 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Paweł Barmuta (Report)

Project Topic: Method for adaptive high-frequency measurements and automated behavioral modeling of microwave active devices

Impact statement: “The MTT-S graduate fellowship gave me the opportunity to attend IMS, EuMC, and INMMiC conferences in 2015. Many valuable discussions I had led to new ideas and provided necessary boost to my research. I strongly believe that the established network will pay off in the future with further developments and applications of the RSM. The fellowship made me think more broadly, and I would strongly recommend the fellowship to anybody.”

María F. Córdoba-Erazo (Report)

Project Topic: Sub-surface imaging of electromagnetic properties of materials using near-field microwave microscopy

Impact statement: “I want to express my sincere gratitude to MTT-S for the economic support and for sponsoring my attendance to IMS 2015 in Phoenix, AR. The award not only allowed me to pursue the proposed research but also to improve my proposal and paper writing skills. During IMS 2015, I had the opportunity to share my work with fellow researchers, attend the technical sessions and continue building a network of colleges working in academia and industry. Additionally, I participated in the Project Connect program where I interacted with undergraduate students and shared my experiences as graduate student.”

Ryan Gough (Report)

Project Topic: Electrical actuation of liquid metal for tunable RF devices

Impact statement: “Receiving a Graduate Fellowship from the IEEE MTT-S has had a profound impact on my research. The financial support provided by this award gave me the freedom to pursue ideas that were off the beaten track, and allowed me to broaden the scope of my research by attending conferences that would otherwise have been out of my reach. I am deeply thankful to the MTT-S for the doors that this Fellowship has opened.”

Song Hu (Report)

Project Topic: Digital intensive hybrid architectures for efficiency and linearity improvement in silicon-based RF power amplifiers

Impact statement: “It was my great honor to receive the 2015 IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship. This recognition has greatly motivated me to further pursue my career in the field of microwave engineering. I also sincerely appreciate the generous financial aid of this fellowship for the conference attendance. It offered me great opportunities to have close interactions with many colleagues in the field.”

Abhishek Kumar Jha (Report)

Project Topic: Study, design and fabrication of various resonant sensors for microwave testing of advanced composites

Impact statement: “IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship contributed significantly and materialized valuable investment in my education that reflected a notable transformation in my research. This award lightened my financial burden, kept me focused, and highly productive throughout my doctoral. I could attend my first IMS only due to this award, where I came across like-minded personalities and various experts of microwaves from the world that changed my outlook on research and cement myself more in the microwave community.”

Zhenguo Jiang (Report)

Project Topic: Ultra-sensitive balanced receivers for spectroscopic terahertz sensing and imaging

Impact statement: “The MTT-S graduate fellowship is recognition of my work, and is also an encouragement for me to pursue further in this field. With the support from MTT-S, I was able to attend IMS 2015 and build connection with researchers and students having similar research interest, which gave high contribution to my professional growth.”

Raúl Loeches-Sánchez (Report)

Project Topic: Advanced microwave filtering devices based on signal-interference techniques

Impact statement: “MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award has provided the research activities I have been developed with recognition, giving a boost to my professional career. There is no doubt that this distinguished award opens doors to new job opportunities. Thanks to this fellowship, I was able to attend IEEE MTT-S IMS for the first time.”

Jiang Long (Report)

Project Topic: Study on non-Foster circuit and its microwave and antenna applications

Impact statement: “It was my honor to receive MTT-S fellowship. The fellowship provides me not only the financial support during my PhD study, but also the opportunity to attend IMS 2015 in Phoenix to share my research with prestigious fellows, which inspired me for my future researches. It is also a huge motivation for me to stick to the research in microwave applications and keep on innovating.”

Daniel Oloumi (Report)

Project Topic: Oil reservoir monitoring using ultra-wideband radar technology

Impact statement: ”Receiving the prestigious MTT_S graduate fellowship was a great honor for me as a PhD student. This award motivated me to work harder and enthusiastically towards my PhD research as it was recognized by the MTT Society. This award was very impactful to enhance my research performance and make me a better researcher. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the MTT society for making this program possible for graduate students. I hope the outcome of my research can be helpful for industrial or academic problems.”

Shihan Qin (Report)

Project Topic: High-performance nonreciprocal RF front-ends with distributedly modulated capacitors for full-duplex radios

Impact statement: “The MTT-S Fellowship provides me not only with monetary support to help continuing my research, but more importantly a recognition of my research work that may impact the world. I have been able to explore many ideas that would not be readily touched without this support. I also had a great journey in IMS 2015 that the fellowship sponsored and encouraged me to attend. Thank you, MTT-S.”

Christian Schulz (Report)

Project Topic: Novel plasma diagnostics: A driving force behind plasma based key enabling technologies

Impact statement: “It has been an honor to have my Ph.D. research project recognized by the IEEE MTT-S and to have been awarded a MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award. The financial support helped me to focus on my research topic and the obtained results directly influenced several publications. Additionally, attending the IMS 2015 was an excellent preparation for the challenges I have to face in my current and future work and it gave me a solid foundation for my personal and scientific development.”

2015 AWARDEES: MEDICAL CATEGORY

Xuebei Yang (Report)

Project Topic: Miniaturized Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectrometers for biomedical sensing

Impact statement: It is my great honor to receive the highly prestigious IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award for Medical Applications 2015. This award represents the acknowledgement of my PhD work on miniaturized Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) spectrometers. Encouraged by it, I have further investigated in this research area and published a paper at International Microwave Symposium 2016, which was nominated as one of the finalists for best student paper award. In addition to the acknowledgement and encouragement, thanks to the financial support provided by the fellowship, I attended International Microwave Symposium 2015 held in Phoenix, AZ, where I had a highly joyful and fruitful conference experience.

Fritzi Toepfer (Report)

Project Topic: Micromachined Millimeter-Wave Near-Field Probe for Skin Cancer Diagnosis

Impact statement: The International Microwave Symposium in Phoenix in 2015 was the third IMS that I attended. Every time I am impressed by the high quality of the presented research. I highly value the conference as an outstanding opportunity to (re)connect with other researches in the field and to engage in fruitful discussions and exchange thoughts and experiences. It was a great honor to receive the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award for my research. It is a great motivation to continue research and development in the field of medical applications of microwaves and reassured me that valuable ideas are recognized and can attract ideal and financial support. In the future I want to continue to use my engineering knowledge and experiences to develop solution that benefit patients, doctors and the healthcare system. As a first step, after my PhD project I will participate in the Clinical Innovation Fellowships Program, during which I, together with a multidisciplinary team, identify clinical needs by field observation directly in a hospital department. Based on these, our team will develop an innovative solution to a medical problem for which my experience from the PhD project provides a perfect background. I strongly believe that the recognition through the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship helped me to stand out from the other applicants for this program and to be chosen as a Clinical Innovation Fellow Candidate and that it will continue to have a positive impact on my career.

2014 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Pawan Agarwal (Report)

Project Topic: Low Power V-Band Beamforming Transceivers for High Data Rate WiGig Applications.

Impact statement: “I would like to sincerely thank MTT-S for granting me the prestigious MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award. The Fellowship has provided me with a substantial boost in not only my research activity but also daily life, due to significant financial support. The Fellowship also provided me the honor to not only present my work at IMS 2014, but also experience amazing ideas presented by my worldwide colleagues in the vast field of microwave engineering.”

Riccardo Danieli (Report)

Project Topic: Development of High Efficiency and High Linearity Power Amplifiers for Space Applications.

Impact statement: “This fellowship has been useful in supporting my study so far. My near term goal is to complete the Ph.D. program, besides improving my capabilities and knowledge in several microwave engineering fields. For the future, I hope to have the possibility to join either a Company or a University where I can continue my research.”

Kunal Datta (Report)

Project Topic: Field Programmable RF Power Amplifiers and Transmitters.

Impact statement: “Receiving the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award for 2014-2015 was a great honour for me. This award has greatly motivated me to pursue future research in the field of microwave engineering. It has opened up new opportunities for me in both academia and industry by recognizing my contribution to the field of microwave engineering as a graduate student. I would strongly urge all future graduate students to apply for this award.”

Ezdeen Elghannai (Report)

Project Topic: Distributed Impedance Matching Technique for Antennas for Wireless Communication Applications

Impact statement: “It is of my great honor to be selected as one of the recipients of the highly prestigious IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award of 2014. I am very proud that my Ph.D. research project was recognized by an internationally well-known society in the Microwave field such as the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S). This award was of great support to facilitate the cost of some sophisticated measurements which was needed to validate proposed techniques in my research project . Additionally, attending the 2014 International Microwave Symposium and participating in the Student Awards Luncheon was definitely a lifetime experience, let alone the great networking opportunity I had by attending IMS 2014.”

Gian Piero Gibiino (Report)

Project Topic: Nonlinear Characterization and Modeling Approaches for Digital Predistortion and Dynamic Envelope Tracking Control of High-Efficiency RF Power Amplifiers

Impact statement: “I am honoured of having received the MTT-S graduate fellowship, which further motivated my research efforts in RF and microwaves. Thanks to the economic contribution, I participated to IMS 2014 in Tampa. The event was very stimulating and gave me the possibility to meet people with the same research interests, thus catalyzing the creation of networks.”

Ruonan Han (Report)

Project Topic: Towards Terahertz System-on-Chip: From Devices to Applications

Impact statement: “It was my great honor to receive the recognition from the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) with this fellowship award. This not only better introduces my THz integrated circuit work to the Society, but also provides opportunities to more closely interact with the colleagues in the field (and get their feedback). I sincerely appreciate this fellowship for its generous financial aid, and the way it shaped my career ambition in the academia.”

Song Liu (Report)

Project Topic: Accuracy improvement in broadband dielectric measurements of biological liquids using transmission lines up to 110 GHz

Impact statement: “The MTT-S graduate fellowship gave me the opportunity to attend the prestigious annual microwave conference, IMS 2014. The travel grant also paid part of my cost of attending the ARFTG 2014 conference. Most importantly, I was able to fabricate microwave microfluidic and on-wafer calibration devices to accurately measure liquid biological materials on-wafer from 10 MHz to 110 GHz. This, I believe has a huge impact on non-invasive monitoring of biological cells, proteins etc.”

Xingsheng Luan (Report)

Project Topic: Building an on-chip radio frequency oscillator based on integrated optomechanics

Impact statement: “For a young graduate student who just started exploring and trying to join in the cutting-edge researches, a financial support to start his/her own research program in a lab is extremely important. For me, the MTT-S Fellowship played exactly this role. With this Fellowship, I received my first formal research project. This totally changed my way of viewing my research. I now have a clearer goal and am more focused on a very specialized topic to really make a breakthrough in this field. It also guided me to think more about how to transfer our research into real technologies and relate it to daily life applications.”

Kyriaki Niotaki (Report)

Project Topic: Design of Multi-Band Substrate Integrated Waveguide High Efficiency Power Amplifier

Impact statement: “I am honored to be one of the 2014 IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) Graduate Fellowship Recipients. The MTT-S Graduate Fellowship has definitely motivated me to further continue my research activities. It also gave me the opportunity to attend the 2014 IMS conference, Tampa, Florida where I created a network of contacts that are expected to increase my career opportunities in the near future.”

Umer Shah (Report)

Project Topic: Radio Frequency/ Microwave Micro‐electromechanical Systems (RF MEMS) for Ku and K Band Frequency Agile Circuits for Communication and Radar Applications.

Impact statement: “It was a great honor that my research activities received such a prestigious recognition – the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award for 2014. The financial support I received helped me to focus my efforts on my research. The award has also motivated me to further my research on RF MEMS, enabling me to write two new papers which will be presented at the International Microwave Symposium 2015. I am certain that this will greatly impact on the possibility of receiving future research funding.”

2014 AWARDEES: MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Jun-Chau Chien (Report)

Project Topic: Tissue and Cells Identification using Dielectric Spectroscopy in CMOS for Intraoperative Assistance and Flow Cytometry Applications

Impact Statement: MTT-S Fellowship for Medical Applications provides not only the financial support but more importantly the connection with research fellows in the same field, by attending the workshops and conferences, to discuss and brainstorm for the advancement in the characterization of single cells at microwave frequencies using different modalities.

Michael Grady (Report)

Project Topic: Towards the Real-time Measurement of the Subsurface Temperatures of Pressure Sores

Impact Statement: Thank you all for your commitment to my and others technical development. The impact that this fellowship has had on my growth has been immense! Not only has the financial support provided great monetary assistance, but I also have developed a strong desire to continually improve my grant writing skills. Winning a nationally recognized fellowship in my field has given me more confidence that I can continue to become more proficient at grant writing and one day, possibly, positively change the world with a few good ideas. I look forward to the future and growing with this community!

2013 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Sulav Adhikari (Report)

Project Topic: Tunable Microwave Devices and System Design Based on Ferromagnetic Material and Silicon Varactor Diode

Impact statement: “It was a big honor for me to be one of the recipients of highly prestigious IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award 2013. The award has not only helped me gain confidence on my ongoing Ph.D. but also it has given me a positive encouragement to do research work. Due to the graduate fellowship award, I am able to get lot attentions of my present research work both from industries as well as academics.”

Alírio J. S. Boaventura (Report)

Project Topic: Design of Wirelessly-powered Battery-less Remote Control Systems

Impact statement: “I am honoured and grateful to receive the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award, which has been a great incentive to pursue R&D in RF and microwave filed. Our project in particular has been greatly publicized on the media in Portugal, which attracted several opportunities of collaboration. The program has also contributed to my decision on conducting further R&D in low cost RFID reader design, and possibly follow an entrepreneurship/industry career. ”

Gianni Bosi (Report)

Project Topic: Multiharmonic Characterization of Electron Devices for Micro- and Millimeter-wave Applications

Impact statement: “The recognition of my research activity by receiving the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award was certainly very pleasing and stimulating. Thanks to the economic contribution, I attended some international conferences as the IMS in 2013 in Seattle. Those events played an important role in my personal and scientific growth. I think that such a kind of initiative is very important in supporting PhD students for their career in the field of microwaves.”

Anandaroop Chakrabarti (Report)

Project Topic: Architectures and Integrated Circuits for Linearized, Watt-class, High Efficiency Millimeter-Wave Transmitters in CMOS

Impact statement: “The prestigious MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award has encouraged my research efforts to take up challenging problems and come up with innovative solutions that can benefit the community as a whole. The award also provided an opportunity to attend IMS 2013 and meet the best researchers across the globe working on cutting-edge technology. The whole experience has broadened my horizon and will surely help shape my research career.”

David Gustafsson (Report)

Project Topic: High Efficiency and Wideband Power Amplifiers

Impact statement: “The MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award has encouraged me to continue my research and motivated me to work even harder to fulfill my career goals. The Fellowship has also contributed to a better financial situation that has made it easier for me to focus on my research.”

Timo Jaeschke (Report)

Project Topic: Next Generation Ultra Wideband mm-Wave FMCW Radar for Industrial, Security and Life Science Applications

Impact statement: “It was a great honor for me to receive the IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship Award 2013 and I want to thank the whole MTT-S community for making the Fellowship Program possible. The Fellowship Award had a big impact on my last year’s activities. I was able to extend my research to new and interesting fields, and also got the attention of new industrial partners for supporting my future research work.”

Marco Mercuri (Report)

Project Topic: Radar-based System for Non-Invasive Long-Term Home Monitoring

Impact statement: “The MTT-S Fellowship 2013 Award played an important role in supporting part of in my PhD research. Moreover, the travel supplement gave me the chance to attend IMS 2013. This gave me the big opportunity to discuss and to take contacts with experts from all over the world working in my fields and, especially, to live and to understand deeply the role of the MTT Society, increasing further my love for research.”

Ibrahim T. Nassar (Report)

Project Topic: A Compact, Efficient 3-D Sensor Node for Embedded Passive Wireless Monitoring

Impact statement: “Receiving the MTT-S fellowship is a great honor for me, I will be proud all my life of receiving this prestigious award. It has boosted my motivation to continue my research toward the PhD degree and fulfill my career goals. It has also provided financial support during my doctoral study and gave me the opportunity to attend the 2013 IMS in Seattle, WA were I had the chance to meet researchers and scientists from overall the world.”

Symon K. Podilchak (Report)

Project Topic: Planar Surface Wave Power Routing Guides

Impact statement: “It has been an absolute privilege and honour to have my Ph.D. research project recognized by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) and to have been awarded a Graduate Fellowship. Not only did the award provide a stipend while pursuing research, but I also received funding to attend the 2013 International Microwave Symposium in Seattle. Participating in the Student Awards Luncheon was also truly memorable.”

Justin G. Pollock (Report)

Project Topic: Characterization of Cylindrical Metamaterial Structures for Biomedical Imaging and Antenna Beamforming

Impact statement: “The financial stability provided by the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship enabled me to be highly productive throughout the year and investigate numerous practical applications of my earlier theoretical work. I am truly grateful towards the MTT-S for providing a tight-knit community of like-minded researchers, which has greatly advanced the microwave field. I am eternally in the debt of the MTT-S society who has helped me become the researcher that I am today.”

2013 AWARDEES: MEDICAL APPLICATIONS

Changzhan Gu

Project Topic: Continuous-Wave Radar Sensor for Accurate Respiration Measurement in Motion-Adaptive Cancer Radiotherapy

Project Description: Continuous-wave (CW) radar sensor has been proposed for accurate respiration measurement in motion-adaptive cancer radiotherapy. It provides a non-contact and non-invasive approach for respiration measurement. Instead of measuring the marker, it directly measures the periodic motion of the body, which has better correlation with the lung tumor motion. Moreover, the radar system is insensitive to clothing and chest hair, due to microwave penetration, making it better than the existing contact devices that are sensitive to the surrounding environment. The signal distortion problem in respiration measurement has been thoroughly analyzed. A DC-coupled radar sensor with adaptive coarse-tuning and fine-tuning architectures is proposed for complete respiration pattern measurement without any distortion. The DC-coupled radar will use a two-stage variable gain amplifier (VGA) with software-configured DC tuning architecture integrated in AMI 0.5-μm CMOS process. The radar sensor system will be clinically evaluated in the Southwest Cancer Treatment & Research Center, Lubbock, TX.

Ping Jack Soh

Project Topic: A Wearable Health-Monitoring System for Medical Emergency Alerts Based on Textile Radiators and Indoor Radar supporting Fall-Detection, Localization and Telemetry

Project Description: Falls are the leading cause of accidental deaths for home-bound and semi-mobile seniors over 65 years. Thus, it is imperative that a cost-effective continuous health monitoring system is developed for such group to enable prompt and automatic alerts to emergency response teams. This work intends to design and develop such system applicable for indoors and outdoors, consisting of two sub-systems; first an indoor fall-detection radar system; and secondly, a cost- effective wearable system. This combined system is expected to provide fall detection capability, target localization and wireless telemetry alerts back to a base station. Moreover, the wearable system is intended to be developed fully using textiles, which will guarantee users’ comfort, besides being immune against on-body absorption. A novel method of mutual-coupling reduction and back-radiation suppression using bandgap structures is proposed to be investigated.

Cuong Nguyen

Project Topic: Wearable Front-end design of in vivo L-Glutamate Neurotransmitter Monitoring Systems

Project Description: The research project focuses on developing a wireless system for in vivo monitoring L-Glutamate, a predominant excitatory neurotransmitter in mammalian central neuronal system. A miniature and implantable needle-like probe with multiple sensing electrodes will be fabricated using MEMS (micro-electro mechanics system) technology to sense the L-Glutamate signals at different brain sites. Sensors with electrodes modified with iridium oxide nanostructure are expected to have significant improvement in sensitivities. The signals will be recorded, conditioned and amplified using an on-site bipotentiostats, which will be designed and optimized for small current measurement. An RF wireless transceiver will be implemented to transmit signals from the wearable bipotentiostat to the recording base station. The use of RF wireless communication for signal transmitting reduces noises, body motion artifacts and inconvenience for animals and patients in long term experiments. The ability to observe and quantify L-Glutamate signals instantaneously and wirelessly helps us to study the correlation between L-Glutamate and many neuronal diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, neurodegeneration, and depression.

2012 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Aritra Banerjee

The fellowship gave me an opportunity to attend conferences such as IMS, RFIC and meet researchers working in microwave engineering and RF design from different countries. It made me familiar with the state of the art research direction and challenges in this area which will surely help me shape my research and career.

Alex Wong

It is my honour to receive the MTT-S Graduate Fellowship award. This award has encouraged my research efforts towards developing high resolution imaging systems using the phenomenon of superoscillation; it also helps support me financially for the upcoming year.

2011 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Nutapong Somjit

The IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship awards for 2010 and 2011 drastically expand my research and career opportunity. I got a job offer as a research associate and team leader at Dresden University of Technology, Germany, immediately after receiving my PhD. The awards from MTT-S also have a great impact on applying for the research funding and other wards (I also won the IEEE AP-S Doctoral Research Fellowship).

2010 AWARDEES: GENERAL CATEGORY

Nutapong Somjit

The IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship awards for 2010 and 2011 drastically expand my research and career opportunity. I got a job offer as a research associate and team leader at Dresden University of Technology, Germany, immediately after receiving my PhD. The awards from MTT-S also have a great impact on applying for the research funding and other wards (I also won the IEEE AP-S Doctoral Research Fellowship).