Centers, Labs and Research Groups
Centers
Fraunhofer USA Center Mid-Atlantic CMA
Principal Investigator(s): Adam Porter
Fraunhofer USA Center Mid-Atlantic CMA conducts applied research to support the software-enabled innovations created by our customers in industry, government, and academia. The center develops and uses advanced, effective, and scalable approaches to software and systems engineering, delivers powerful testing and verification strategies and tools, and uses state-of-the-art measurement and analysis methods to support its customers' challenges.
Maryland Hybrid Networks Center
Principal Investigator(s): John S. Baras
The Maryland Hybrid Networks Center's (HyNet) primary focus is to develop hybrid networks that link satellite and wireless systems with cellular, cable, Internet, and telephone networks. Research topics include security in communication networks; Internet over satellite; wireless and ad hoc networks; Internet traffic patterns; free-space optics and air traffic control systems.
Maryland NanoCenter
Principal Investigator(s): Sang Bok Lee
The Maryland NanoCenter operates open shared labs, staffed by highly experienced NanoCenter personnel, for UMD and outside users who register, follow prescribed training and safety procedures, and provide account information for paying user fees through UMD accounts or external purchase orders. Companies, government labs, and universities are welcome. Over 80 pieces of equipment are available.
Maryland Robotics Center
Principal Investigator(s): Derek A. Paley
The Maryland Robotics Center is an interdisciplinary research center housed in the Institute for Systems Research within the A. James Clark School of Engineering. The mission of the center is to advance robotic systems, underlying component technologies, and applications of robotics through research and educational programs that are interdisciplinary in nature and based on a systems approach.
NEXTOR III: The Federal Aviation Administration Consortium in Aviation Operations Research
Principal Investigator(s): Michael O. Ball, David Lovell
NEXTOR III is the eight-university FAA Consortium in Aviation Operations Research contracted by the Federal Aviation Administration to support research on a wide range of aviation topics. NEXTOR's strategic goal is to lead the aviation community by generating new ideas and paradigms in air transportation, by educating and training aviation professionals, and by promoting knowledge transfer among industry, government and academic leaders.
University of Maryland Energy Frontier Research Center: Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage (UMERC NEES)
Principal Investigator(s): Gary Rubloff
The Nanostructures for Electrical Energy Storage (NEES) EFRC develops highly ordered nanostructures that offer a unique testbed for investigating the underpinnings of storing electrical energy. The center studies structures that are precise - each at the scale of tens to hundreds of nanometers and ordered in massive arrays—and that are multifunctional—able to conduct electrons, diffuse and store lithium ions, and form a stable mechanical base.
Labs
Autonomy Robotics Cognition Lab
Principal Investigator(s): Yiannis Aloimonos, John S. Baras
The ARC lab brings together their leading-edge approaches in systems engineering, autonomous robotics, computer vision, and cognitive computation to create a diverse research environment supported by experts in multiple domains.
Collective Dynamics and Control Lab
Principal Investigator(s): Derek A. Paley
Conducts research into dynamics, estimation, and control, including the cooperative control of autonomous vehicles. Also investigates adaptive sampling of spatiotemporal processes for mobile sensor networks, and focuses on biocomplexity and bioinspiration using quantitative modeling of animal groups and behavior.
Computational Sensorimotor Systems Laboratory
Principal Investigator(s): Jonathan Simon, Timothy Horiuchi
This lab works in auditory neural computations and representations; magnetoencephalography and cortical physiology; signal processing in biological systems; and computational and theoretical neuroscience.
Control of Miniaturized Systems for Mechatronic, Biological, and Clinical Applications Laboratory
This group is focused on all aspects of miniaturized-system control, from initial determination of the dominant physics, to model development, control problem statement and algorithm design, to experimental verification.
CPS & Cooperative Autonomy Laboratory
Principal Investigator(s): Nuno Martins
This lab conducts cyber-physical systems research, focusing on the implementation of decentralized algorithms for control, coordination, estimation and detection.
Human-Computer Interaction Lab
HCIL develops advanced user interfaces and design methodology, with faculty coming from a variety of disciplines including computer science, education, psychology, engineering, and the humanities. HCIL has a core focus on understanding how to design technologies to support positive impact in the world.
IDEAL Lab
Principal Investigator(s): Mark D. Fuge
The IDEAL Lab uses machine learning, artificial intelligence, and crowdsourcing to understand how large groups of people design things and how complex engineered systems work, so that the data they produce can make them better.
Integrated Biomorphic Information Systems Laboratory
Principal Investigator(s): Pamela Abshire
CMOS biosensors; adaptive integrated circuits (ICs) and IC sensors; hybrid microsystems incorporating CMOS, MEMS, optoelectronics, microfluidics, and biological components; low power mixed-signal ICs for a variety of applications, including cell-based sensing, high performance imaging, miniature robotics, spike sorting, adaptive data conversion, and closed loop control of MEMS and microfluidic systems.
Intelligent Servosystems Laboratory
Principal Investigator(s): P. S. Krishnaprasad
Research in the Intelligent Servosystems Laboratory advances the state of the art in the design and real-time control of smart systems drawing on advances in: (a) novel sensing and actuation materials and mechanism designs; (b) new principles for actuation, propulsion, detection, reduction, learning, and adaptation; (c) conceptualizing and prototyping across scales, to sense, actuate, communicate and control.
Kanold Laboratory
Principal Investigator(s): Patrick Kanold
This lab investigates how information is encoded in the brain and how this code is read out to make behavioral decisions and cause percepts. Humans do not come hard-wired; interaction with the environment plays a major role in shaping the brain. In particular during early life sensory experience shapes the refinement of connections in the brain but after the critical period only limited remodeling (plasticity) is possible. Since the encoding of sensory information in the brain depends on experience, this lab also is very interested in uncovering how experience shapes neuronal circuits and encoding of stimuli.
Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing (LAMP)
Principal Investigator(s): Gary Rubloff
The Laboratory for Advanced Materials Processing (LAMP) is a clean-room research facility run and operated by Pr. Gary Rubloff's group. Research activities focus on thin film synthesis via Atomic Layer Deposition, development of nanoscale structures and devices for energy storage combining ALD and AAO nanotemplates, and development and characterization of Josephson Junctions for superconducting qubits devices. (more details on our group website). LAMP features a variety of equipment for the synthesis and characterization of thin films.
Laboratory for Microtechnologies
Principal Investigator(s): Elisabeth Smela
The main focus for the Laboratory for MicroTechnologies is creating new technologies that combine inorganic materials (silicon chips, optical fibers, etc.) with organic materials (polymers, cells, etc.) at the micro-scale. We are active in bioMEMS, working in the areas of cell-based sensing, cell manipulation, microfluidics, and mapping nucleic acids in tissue sections. We have a long history of working with "artificial muscles", previously conjugated polymers and dielectric elastomer actuators and, more recently, nastic actuators. Recently we began working in the area of tactile skins for robotics based on thin film piezoresistive latex/graphite composite paints.
Maryland Power Electronics Laboratory
Principal Investigator(s): Alireza Khaligh
With years of R&D experience in the modeling, simulation, design, and development of power electronics solutions, the MPEL team is highly experienced in a wide range of power electronic systems. The lab's proficiency in power electronics puts this team in a position to be a valuable resource for delivering impactful solutions. Each member of the team is skilled and practiced in completing projects from modeling to implementation and validation. With over 170 technical journal and conference papers, invention disclosures and patents, the MPEL Lab presents innovative solutions to complex problems. Its state-of-the-art facilities and equipment allow the lab to conduct pioneering research to advance the field of power electronics.
Media and Security Team
Principal Investigator(s): Min Wu
The Media And Security Team led by Min Wu was established in Fall 2001 at University of Maryland, College Park. A number of research and education activities related to multimedia signal processing and information security have been carried out, thanks to the effort by a dedicated group of MASTers. Among them are many talented graduate and undergraduate students - who are inspiring to work with and fun to have as friends. We are also grateful for having wonderful collaborators over the years and support from government and industrial sponsors.
MEMS Sensors and Actuators Lab
Principal Investigator(s): Reza Ghodssi
The MEMS Sensors and Actuators Laboratory was established in January 2000. Our lab focuses on application-driven technology development using micro-nano-bio engineering approaches. A centerpiece of our efforts is “systems integration” to provide holistic solutions for real-world use. The focus of our work is aimed at in-situ biomedical and clinical applications, specifically toward gastrointestinal diagnostics, biofilm monitoring and inhibition, and platforms for investigating gut-brain interactions. This research is complemented by efforts in energy storage, harvesting and conversion to provide power for the desired embedded, self-sustaining MEMS sensors and actuators. Our devices incorporate system-oriented design elements relying on MEMS materials and fabrication technology, novel biosensing and biofabrication processes, microelectronics integration, and 3D printed packaging techniques.
Netcentric Supply Chain Lab
Netcentricity is the power of digital networks to distribute information instantly and without borders. Characterized by global connectivity, real-time collaboration and rapid and continuous information exchange, netcentricity is a ubiquitous force reshaping every facet of markets, organizational cultures, and personal lives. Under the auspices of its Netcentric Research Initiative, the Robert H. Smith School of Business created the Netcentricity Laboratory. This advanced teaching, research, and corporate resource brings together leading scholars and practitioners to study netcentricity as an evolving competitive force of the Internet economy. As the first academic center to be a partner in Sun Microsystems’ world-wide iForce Initiative, the lab provides the technology, the expertise and the intellectual leadership for applying digital networks to business, organizations, and the economy.
Neural Systems Lab
Principal Investigator(s): Shihab Shamma
The Neural Systems Laboratory studies the functionality of the mammalian auditory system through several disciplines and techniques ranging from theoretical models to neurophysiological investigations and psychoacoustical experiments.
Perception and Robotics Group
This group works on active and bio-inspired perception and tests its theories by developing implementations in robotic systems, specifically autonomous drones and humanoid robots. It develops an integration of perception, with control, planning, reasoning and language in new cognitive architectures. A long-term goal in the lab is the understanding of human activity. This led to the development of grammars for action which opened a new way for imitation learning in robotics, where learning happens at the level of the sub-goals in the action and not only at the level of the movement.
Robotics Realization Lab
The Robotics Realization Lab supports faculty and students in the Maryland Robotics Center by providing the most advanced human-safe robots for manufacturing and medical applications as well as mechanical and electrical rapid prototyping equipment to support the development of robot hardware that is not commercially available.
Semi-Autonomous Systems Lab
Principal Investigator(s): Nikhil Chopra
The Semi-Autonomous Systems Lab focuses on developing a comprehensive framework for semi-autonomous coordination of networked robotic systems. Semi-autonomous robotic systems are composed of robotic systems that not only coordinate with each other but also with human operators that control the higher level decision making in the overall system. The development of these systems requires fundamental advances in the field of telerobotics and cooperative and network control of robotic systems. This lab develops fundamental advances in control algorithms and methodologies to address these problems. The laboratory houses a testbed composed of networked Phantom Omni haptic devices. This setup is used to carry out experiments in networked control, cooperative control and bilateral teleoperation. iRobot Create mobile robotic systems are also used in this experimental setup.
Sensors and Actuators Laboratory
Principal Investigator(s): Miao Yu
The Sensors and Actuators Laboratory includes a 1500 square foot research facility that is equipped with state of the art optical testing equipment and dynamical characterization equipment dedicated to research on micro/nano sensors, photonics, and smart materials and structures. Technologies developed in the lab have been used to develop fly-ear inspired sensors, bio-inspired robotic homing and navigation systems, system-on-a-chip multifunctional sensor platform, and miniature optical manipulation systems.
Simulation-Based System Design Laboratory
This lab develops, tests, and implements effective and efficient simulation techniques for modeling, evaluating, and optimizing systems in order to improve decision-making throughout the system development life cycle. Simulation is an important tool for modeling and predicting the performance of systems when analytical models do not exist or perform poorly. In addition, simulation provides powerful ways to visualize the behavior of a complex system before it is constructed.
Space Systems Lab
Principal Investigator(s): David Akin
A leader in the area of astronautics, the Space Systems Laboratory is centered around the Neutral Buoyancy Research Facility, a 50-foot diameter, 25-foot deep water tank that is used to simulate the microgravity environment of space. The only such facility in the world housed at a university, Maryland's neutral buoyancy tank is used for undergraduate and graduate research at the Space Systems Lab in space robotics, human factors, applications of artificial intelligence and the underlying fundamentals of space simulation.
Speech Communication Lab
Principal Investigator(s): Carol Espy-Wilson
Research in this lab combines digital signal processing, speech science and machine learning to address issues in speech communication. One major effort is concerned with the development of several components of a speech recognition system based on phonetic features. In particular, there are projects focusing on the signal representation, lexical access and the development of a new paradigm for speech recognition. A second project is focusing on the improvement in quality and intelligibility of speech and the development of tools for speech enhancement. A third project is concerned with articulatory and acoustic modeling. The fourth project concerns speaker identification using a set of acoustic parameters automatically extracted from speech. We have ongoing work on the automatic extraction of such parameters from speech for both speaker and speech recognition purposes. Other research interests involve speech synthesis .
Sustainable Archives and Leveraging Technologies Lab
Principal Investigator(s): Richard Marciano
This interdisciplinary group focuses on the interplay of content, policy, governance, and cyber-infrastructure. The lab develops and leverages resources and technologies to enable collaborations.
Systems Engineering and Integration Lab
Principal Investigator(s): John S. Baras
SEIL lab is located on the second floor of the A. V. Williams Building.
Thinfilm Research Group
Principal Investigator(s): Raymond A. Adomaitis
This research group focuses on simulation and design of thin-film manufacturing processes with applications in microelectronics, alternative energy, nano manufacturing, and spacecraft systems. The group develops physically based models of atomic layer deposition surface reaction kinetics to provide simulation tools for the scale-up and optimization of these manufacturing processes.