ECE - Key Persons
Professional experience
Professor Andrew Rys received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Texas Tech University in 1983. His doctoral dissertation topic included the design, fabrication and characterization of GaAs/AlGaAs heterojunction devices. He joined the faculty in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Kansas State University in 1983. In the summer of 1984, he worked at the SRDL labs in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1995, he was promoted to a rank of professor at K-State.
From 2011-15, he served on University Graduate Council, and on the Academic Affairs Committee of the Graduate Council from 2011-14. He has been the graduate program director for the ECE department from 2007 to present. Between 2001 and 2007, he held a position as a K-state faculty senator and was active on the Faculty Senate Committee on University Planning (FSCOUP). He was on the K-State Faculty Senate Executive Committee from 2006-07.
Research
Professor Rys was involved in semiconductor research dealing with the epitaxial growth of heterojunctions of AlGaAs/GaAs applied to solar cells. He was a recipient of an NSF CAREER Award to study the laser annealing of III-V compound semiconductors in collaboration with Motorola Semiconductor Research Labs and the physics department at K-State. After that, he participated in a multi-year project with the department of chemical engineering on the charge carrier transport of wide band-gap SiC semiconductors and their thermal oxidation for future power MOSFET applications.
Current research interests of Professor Rys are in areas of low-temperature testing of CMOS circuits and the electrical, optical and structural characterization of AlN and BN thin films for optoelectronic and rf device applications and the device modeling. He has participated in several professional workshops in the areas of optoelectronics, semiconductor materials, and device technology and design; has published several papers in technical journals; and was awarded a U.S. patent.
Job Titles:
- Member in Electrical Power and Energy Systems
- Professor
- Professor & Interim Chair / Electrical & Computer Engineering
- University Distinguished Professor
Pahwa is the lead faculty member in electrical power and energy systems at Kansas State University. His research focuses on reliability, automation and optimization of power distribution systems. Specifically, his research has provided innovative and practical solutions for the application of advanced communication and cyber technologies for automation of distribution of electricity to customers, and large-scale integration of renewable energy resources in the system to decrease dependence on fossil fuels. These solutions include testing of field equipment, evaluation of distribution automation projects, novel approaches for quick restoration of distribution systems following extended interruptions, design of distribution systems to minimize stress on equipment during restoration and methodologies to increase utilization of renewable resources. A recent NSF-Cyber Physical Systems (CPS) project directed by Pahwa, focused on investigating holonic multi-agent system (HMAS) architecture for operation of power distribution systems with massive deployment of consumer-owned rooftop solar power generation. A current NSF-CPS project led by Pahwa is directed towards implementing systems with thousands of active consumers who own solar PV generation, and have an ability to buy and sell electricity by proactively adjusting their electricity demand in response to changing electricity prices. Due to its national significance, this project was featured in a September 2015 White House press release on the Smart Cities Initiative.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant Professor
Job Titles:
- Teaching Assistant Professor
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor, Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Professor
Job Titles:
- Graduate Program Director & Professor
- Professor and Graduate Program Director
Behrooz Mirafzal received his bachelor's degree from Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, in 1994, and his doctorate from Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2005, all in electrical engineering. Prior to his doctoral studies, he was a power engineer, as well as a lecturer, with several academic institutions in Isfahan. From 2005-08, he was with Rockwell Automation/Allen-Bradley, Mequon, Wisconsin, first as senior development and then promoted to a project engineer, where he was involved in research and development related to magnetic design and high-frequency reflected wave phenomena in motor-drive systems. During the time he was employed at Rockwell Automation, he was an adjunct faculty at Marquette University, and a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. From 2008-11, he was an assistant professor at Florida International University, Miami, Florida. In 2011, he joined Kansas State University and established the power electronics research laboratory. He is currently a full professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Kansas State University.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant Professor
Bo Liu worked as a Postdoc at Kansas State University upon completing his doctorate from Jun. 2021 to Jun. 2022, where he worked closely with Professor Hongyu Wu on developing data-driven cyberattack and defense models in smart grids. In the 2018 summer, he was a graduate research intern at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where he worked on the data-driven distribution system state estimation.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- University Distinguished Professor
Caterina Scoglio received a doctorate in electronics engineering in 1987, and a post-graduate degree in system analysis and control in 1988 from Sapienza - University of Rome. From 1987 to 2000, she was a research scientist in the Fondazione Ugo Bordoni, a National Telecommunication Research Institute in Rome. In 1991 and 1992, she was a visiting researcher at the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and she returned in 2000 - 2005 as a research engineer in the department of electrical and computer engineering. Scoglio joined K-State in 2005 as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 2013. She currently holds the Paslay Professorship in Electrical and Computer Engineering and is the director of the Network Science and Engineering (NetSE) Group at K-State.
Caterina M. Scoglio is the Paslay chair professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Kansas State University. Her main research interests are in the field of network science and engineering. Caterina received the Dr. Eng. degree from the "Sapienza" Rome University, Italy, in 1987. Before joining Kansas State University, she worked at the Fondazione Ugo Bordoni from 1987 to 2000, and at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 2000 to 2005. Caterina has also been an affiliated faculty member at the Institute of Computational Comparative Medicine (ICCM) at Kansas State University, from 2013 to 2020.
Job Titles:
- Teaching Assistant Professor
Charles Carlson received a B.S. degree in physics from Fort Hays State University in 2013 as well as B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Kansas State University in 2013, 2015 and 2019, respectively. In 2015, from January to July, he worked as a radio frequency engineer at Black & Veatch in Kansas City.
He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). He is a faculty co-advisor for the K-State IEEE EMBS student chapter.
Carlson has been involved in numerous research activities ranging from low-power FPGA receiver architectures for energy-harvesting sensor networks to the development of a smart-bed-based system designed to monitor unobtrusively the sleep of children with lower-functioning autism.
Mr. Li received his B. Eng. from Xi'an University of Technology, China, and M. Eng. from Shanghai University, China, in 2001 and 2004 respectively. From 2004 to 2005, he worked as a full-time research assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. From 2005 to 2006, he worked as a power system engineer in the Hygrand Electronic Equipment Company, China. Mr. Li's current research interests mainly focus on computational intelligence applications and power system control. At present he is working with Dr. Das in evolutionary algorithms.
Mr. Li's other interests include Chinese calligraphy, badminton, hiking and music.
Job Titles:
- Department Head
- Department Head and Associate Professor
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor, K - State Salina
Eduard Plett received an MS in Electrical Engineering from KSU in 2006.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Professor
- Senior Member of the IEEE
Fariba Fateh joined the department of electrical and computer engineering at Kansas State in January 2016. She teaches control systems design, advanced systems theory, and system identification and adaptive control.
Fateh is a senior member of the IEEE and a member of Control Systems Society, as well as Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma-Xi Honor Societies. She has served as an associate editor in Modeling, Estimation & Control Conference (MECC) since 2021, and American Control Conference (ACC) 2016-23 and Dynamic Systems and Control Conference 2016-23. She has authored or co-authored more than 25 conference and journal papers. She served as session and topic chairs for IEEE conferences, reviewer of several IEEE transactions.
Job Titles:
- Academic Advisor - Instructor
Professional experience
After graduating from Kansas State University in 2015, he worked at Garmin International as a design engineer for the aviation weather radar group, specifically working with Radio Frequency hardware design. In 2016, he returned to Kansas State University to serve as an instructor and undergraduate advisor for the Mike Wiegers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Research
Peterson is pursuing a doctorate in electrical engineering under the direction of William Kuhn. His area of focus is in radar technologies.
Peterson has been published for research of wireless body area networks in space suits. Also, he knows a guy who knows a guy that once won a Nobel Prize.
Job Titles:
- Keystone Research Scholar
Gui Min received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Central South University, China, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Central South University, China, under the guidance of Prof.Luo An. She currently is a graduate student in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Kansas State University under the guidance of Prof. Anil Pahwa and Prof. Sanjoy Das. Gui Min's research interests are in power system reliability and artificial intelligence.
Job Titles:
- Professor, Computer & Information Sciences
Hongyu Wu worked as a researcher at State Grid Energy Research Institute of China upon the completion of his doctorate. From Sept. 2011 to Feb. 2014, he was a senior research associate at Robert W. Galvin Center for Electricity Innovation at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), where he worked closely with Professor Mohammad Shahidehpour on research projects associated with smart grid and microgrid. From Feb. 2014 to Aug. 2016, he was a research engineer in the Power Systems Engineering Center at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), where he collaborated closely with universities, national laboratories, governmental agencies and private companies in the power and energy sector to optimize strategies for effectively interconnecting renewable resources and emerging energy efficiency technologies in the electric power system.
Job Titles:
- Research Assistant Professor
Professional experience
Jan Sebek received a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication from Czech Technical University in Prague in 2010, and a master's and doctoral degree in electrical engineering from Czech Technical University in Prague in 2012, and 2019, respectively.
In years 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2014, he worked on projects like translation of speech signals for a speech recognition database, development and implementation of electric filters in the 3.5GHz frequency band, design of the class D audio amplifier kit for class work, and parameter measurement and calibration of radiation sensors for meteorological radar during internships at Czech Technical University and Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Atmospheric Physics.
Since 2018, he has worked as a research scholar at Kansas State University in its Biomedical Computing and Devices Laboratory.
Sebek has been involved in research in areas of blind source separation for electroencephalography signal denoising, development and implementation of new structures of microwave applicators for directional and omnidirectional heating of biological tissues and development of simulation-based treatment planning of microwave ablation procedures.
Job Titles:
- Academic Recruitment Assistant
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- Program Coordinator
- Project Manager
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- Engineering Faculty of Distinction Chair
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- Department of Electrical
- Garmin As the Lead Engineer
Michael R. Wiegers graduated from K-State with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1982. After graduation, he joined King Radio in Olathe, Kansas, to design VHF aviation communication and navigation radios. During his 11-year career with King Radio, he worked in new technology areas such as flight-critical software and electronic display systems.
"We are honored to support Kansas State University as it educates the next generation of engineering and technology professionals. My education was made possible through the generosity of others who created K-State programs and scholarships, and I am forever grateful. That is why Lynn and I want to pay it forward and help fund opportunities for students who otherwise might not have access to higher education. We hope our department-naming legacy gift will provide students with the best faculty and programs to enrich their studies and inspire them to become the electrical and computer engineers that Kansas technology companies need." -- Mike Wiegers
In 1993, Wiegers joined Garmin as the lead engineer in marine product design. During his tenure, he has served in a variety of technical and business leadership capacities in all Garmin consumer product segments.
Wiegers was named to his current position of vice president, consumer engineering in 2010 and directs the day-to-day operations of Garmin's worldwide consumer engineering group.
He was named the 2018 College of Engineering Alumni Fellow at Kansas State University.
Job Titles:
- Assistant Director Grants and Contracts CNAP COBRE Center
Job Titles:
- Postdoctoral Research Scientist / Electrical & Computer Engineering
Dr. Koduru received a B. Tech. in Chemical Engineering from Osmania University, India, an M.S. in Control Systems Engineering from West Virginia University Institute of Technology under the guidance of Prof. Asad Davari, and an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Yale University under the guidance of Prof. Kumpati S. Narendra. He completed his Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Kansas State University in 2006 under the guidance of Prof. Sanjoy Das and Prof. Stephen M. Welch. Dr. Koduru's research interests are in evolutionary algorithms, genomics, control systems, and artificial intelligence.
Job Titles:
- Member of the NIH Imaging
- Professor
Prakash serves as a charter member of the NIH Imaging guided interventions and surgery (IGIS) study section (2020-24), Section Editor-Engineering/Physics of the International Journal of Hyperthermia, and as Secretary/Treasurer of the Society for Thermal Medicine (2022-24). He is co-founder of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS) International Summer School on Computer Modeling in Medicine. He previously served as elected Chair of the IEEE EMBS Technical Committee on Therapeutic Systems and Technologies (2016-17). Prakash is a recipient of the K-State College of Engineering Dean's Award for Excellence in Research (2022) and Outstanding Assistant Professor award (2017), and received the Innovative Research Award (2014) from the Johnson Cancer Research Center.
Job Titles:
- Accountant II - CNAP COBRE Center
S. M. Welch, S. Das, W. H. Hsu, J. L. Roe, "Molecular Evolutionary Ecology of Developmental Signaling Pathways in Complex Environments", NSF FIBR 0425759, funded senior investigator (co-PIs R. Amasino (U. of Wisconsin), M. Purugganan (NCSU), S. Welch (KSU)) (sub-team amount: $1,405,614/ 9/1/2004-8/31/2010).
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor
- Associate Professor ( Tenured )
- Director, BIC / Electrical & Computer Engineering
Sanjoy Das received postdoctoral training from the University of California, Berkeley between 1994-97. He worked as a research scientist in the industry until 2001.
Prof. Das completed his Ph.D. in Electrical & Computer Engineering from Louisiana State University in 1994, and received postdoctoral training at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked for several years in the industry before joining Kansas State University in 2001. Prof. Das is primarily interested in biologically inspired computing, a field of study within artificial intelligence that borrows algorithms from various natural paradigms, such as Darwinian evolution, swarm intelligence, immune systems and neuronal structures to address problems that are too complex to be solved through conventional means. He is investigating the applications of these algorithms for specific optimization problems in plant genomics in collaboration with Prof. Welch and in distribution systems modeling in collaboration with Prof. Pahwa.
Job Titles:
- Keystone Research Scholar
Job Titles:
- Adviser for the K - State IEEE EMBS
- Associate Professor With Tenure at K - State
- Chairman of the 2016 ASEE Midwest Section Conference
- Director of the K - State Medical Component Design Laboratory
- Member of the American Society for Engineering Education
- Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- Principal Member of the Technical Staff at Sandia National Laboratories
- Professor
- Representative for the K - State Carl R. Ice College of Engineering
- Research
Steven Warren is a professor in the Mike Wiegers Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Kansas State University. He received a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from K-State in 1989 and 1991, respectively, followed by a doctorate in electrical engineering from The University of Texas at Austin in 1994. Prior to joining K-State in August 1999, Warren was a post-doctoral member, senior member and then principal member of the technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 2002, Warren was promoted to associate professor with tenure at K-State. He since joined the K-State department of gerontology as an adjunct faculty member and was promoted to professor in 2017.
Warren is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). Since 2005, he has served as the faculty adviser for the K-State IEEE EMBS student chapter. Warren is also an active member of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and serves as the ASEE campus representative for the K-State Carl R. Ice College of Engineering. He is the past chair of the ASEE Midwest Section and was the chair of the 2016 ASEE Midwest Section Conference. Warren is the senior member on the K-State internal review board (since 2000), serves on the Goldwater Selection Committee and has completed two terms for the K-State Presidential Lecture Series. He served six years on the Heartspring Board of Trustees, and has been an expert witness in litigation cases related to telemedicine and pulse oximetry
Warren is the director of the K-State Medical Component Design Laboratory, a facility that supports research efforts in (1) plug-and-play medical monitoring systems that use interoperability standards, (2) wearable sensors and signal processing techniques to determine human/animal health, and (3) the creation and assessment of classroom technologies and techniques that enhance student learning. Since 1999, he has been an investigator on over 50 grant-funded efforts totaling nearly $12M. Primary funding has been provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF CAREER, ITR, DUE, EEC, CRI, SIR, REESE, CCLI/TUES, CPS, & GARDE programs), supplemented by grants from NASA, the National Institutes of Health, K-State, and corporate partners. He has authored 134 peer-reviewed publications, 13 book chapters/reports, and numerous other publications and presentations. Warren has been the major professor for 30 graduate students, served on 42 graduate committees and mentored 58 undergraduate research students, including underrepresented students supported by the Developing Scholars and KS-LSAMP initiatives. On-campus research partners for these efforts have involved faculty in at least 22 departments within seven K-State colleges.
Job Titles:
- Senior Professor of Practice
Job Titles:
- Associate Professor, Computer & Information Sciences
(The above is only a partial list of collaborators who have authored multiple papers, obtained funded research, and/or guided students in BIC related fields. There are a few other noteworthy collaborators also not listed here.
Job Titles:
- Professor
- Teaching Professor
Xinye Cai received a Bachelor degree in Electronic and Information Engineering from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China and an M.S in Electronic Engineering from Bio-inspired architecture group, University of York. Currently he is a Ph.D. student under the guidance of Prof. Sanjoy Das and Prof. Stephen M. Welch. His main interest is in evolutionary computation and other bio-inspired algorithms, modeling and simulation, engineering design and evolvable hardware.