Research Laboratories

PHO417 Applied Electromagnetics Laboratory     617/353-1909     This laboratory is devoted to problems in experimental electromagnetics with a primary focus on industrial electrostatics, sensors, and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS). Current projects include a study of spark energies from insulating surfaces, studies of the electrostatic properties of insulating materials, development of a circular electrode array plasma-torch system, and charge-control systems for MEMS actuators. Faculty: Horenstein

PHO512 Biomedical Optics and Biophotonics Laboratory     617/358-2041     The core theme of biomedical optics/ photonics is minimally invasive optical diagnostics and therapeutics. This laboratory focuses on the development of optics-based technologies for clinical applications and biomedical research. Current research topic areas include: Advanced spectroscopic technologies for tissue diagnosis Noninvasive measurement of drug concentrations in tissue Interstitial laser thermotherapy and photodynamic therapy Computational methods for modeling optical transport in tissue Optical interferometry for imaging nerve activation Faculty: Bigio

PHO446 Broadband Wireless Communications Laboratory     617/353-9575     This laboratory supports research projects on the design, theory, and prototyping of broadband wireless communication systems. The major focus is on the use of light as the transmission medium for high-datarate indoor wireless local-area networks. The laboratory includes facilities for the fabrication and testing of experimental prototypes as well as computing resources for system design and analysis. Faculty: Carruthers

PHO539 Computational Electronics Laboratory         The Computational Electronics Laboratory (CEL) is equipped with state-of-the-art computing tools. The lab has two computer clusters, one XP1000 Alpha Cluster (8 CPUs) running True UNIX 64, and an AMD Athalon MP Cluster (13 CPUs) running Linux. The lab also operates a variety of high performance PCs and printers. The Computational Electronics Group develops software to study semiconductor materials and to perform electronics and optoelectronics device simulation. Commercial simulation packages, such as ISE Genesis and Silvaco Virtual Wafer Fab are currently employed. Faculty: Bellotti

Computational Signal Processing     617/353-4718     This laboratory conducts research on complex biosignal computing, computational signal processing, applied artificial intelligence, and applied computational intelligence. This research is carried out in the context of applications involving biosignals from neuromuscular, auditory, and speech systems. Faculty: Nawab

PHO413 Computer Architecture and Automated Design Laboratory     http://www.bu.edu/caadlab/     Work focuses on experimental computer architecture, particularly on the application of emerging technology to computationally intensive application. Projects include developing design tools for application specific coprocessors, designing MPP router switches, vision computers, and the application of configurable computing to bioinformatics. Faculty: Herbordt

PHO416 Functorial Electromagnetics Laboratory         The Functorial Electromagnetic Analysis Lab considers the difficulties encountered in the finite element analysis of three-dimensional electromagnetic fields that cannot be anticipated through experience with two-dimensional simulations. The lab has focussed its efforts in the development of Whitney form techniques, homology calculations, algorithms for total magnetic scalar potentials in multiply-connected regions, helicity functional techniques, and data structures based on semi-simplicial objects. Torsion invariants of complexes and rational homotopy theory are currently being exploited in the context of direct and inverse three-dimensional problems such as impedance tomography and magnetic field synthesis. Faculty: Kotiuga

Imaging Science Laboratory (ISL)         Affiliated with the Boston University Center for Space Physics, the ISL applies state-of-the-art optical imaging technology to the study of the Earth, Moon, planets and comets. Activities include equipment design and fabrication, field campaigns to observing sites world-wide, and digital signal processing. Faculty: Mendillo, Semeter

PHO413A Laboratory of Networking and Information Systems     http://nislab.bu.edu     This lab is involved in providing novel perspectives on modern networking issues, including scalability, heterogeneity, and performance. The lab is equipped with sophisticated hardware and software and promotes research into the fields of network synchronization, mobile computing, Internet traffic engineering, distributed Web caching, and coding theoretic approaches to real-time information reconciliation. Faculty: Starobinski, Trachtenberg

PHO505 Lightwave Technology Laboratory     617/358-1035     This lab is one of the few university laboratories capable of designing, fabricating, and characterizing silica optical fibers. The research activities of this laboratory focus on new processing techniques for optical fibers , high power optical fiber lasers, and a variety of optical fiber sensors. We are developing a new technique for combining multimode pump radiation into double clad fibers. The components of this facility consist of a fabrication laboratory with three glass lathes including a new stateof- the-art Nextrom MCVD system, an optical laboratory with numerous pump lasers for fiber lasers, five isolation tables, and an 8m optical fiber draw tower, newly outfitted with Nextrom widing and control equipment. In addition, there is a CVD laboratory for studies of thin films. Faculty: Morse

PHO714 Magnetic and Optical Devices Laboratory (MODL)     617/353-5887     Recent work has used optical, electrical, and computational methods to study biological problems. A novel optical device, the Resonant Cavity Imaging Biosensor, for tag-free bio-sensing using resonant optical cavities and IR imaging opened this new area of investigation for the MODL. The lab is validating a mask-free optical synthesizer for bio-arrays (the "Fabricator" project). Other bio-sensing projects are using Wyco systems for imaging and detection, using hyperspectral Fourier transform spectroscopy. Biochemistry is being studied for new methods of spotting test samples. Materials collaborations with the Optical processing Facility develop optical quality micro flow cells. Collaborations with the Center for Space Physics support a small group testing ground based imaging for auroral zones in the upper atmosphere. Faculty: Ruane, Semeter

PHO401 Multi-Dimensional Signal Processing (MDSP) Laboratory     617/353-1668     The MDSP Lab conducts research in the areas of multidimensional and multiresolution signal and image processing and estimation, and geometric-based estimation. The applications that motivate this research include, but are not limited to, problems arising in automatic target detection and recognition, geophysical inverse problems (such as finding oil and analyzing the atmosphere), and medical estimation problems (such as tomography and MRI). The general goal is to develop efficient methods for the extraction of information from diverse data sources in the presence of uncertainty. The lab's approach is based on the development of statistical models for both observations, prior knowledge, and the subsequent use of these models for optimal or near-optimal processing. Faculty: Karl

PHO445 Multimedia Communications Laboratory     617/353-8042     The focus of this laboratory is the enabling technology for distributed and multimedia applications. Research includes investigation of distributed modes interaction among wireless computers; aggregation and clustering techniques for scaling large-scale Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs) and Sensor Networks; communication systems for continuous media; and conceptual and physical database organizations. The laboratory is equipped a high-performance simulation environment and a wireless testbed for proof-of-concept prototype development. Faculty: Little

PHOB11 Optical Characterization and Nanophotonics (OCN)     http://ultra.bu.edu/ | 617/353-1712     Nanophotonics addresses a broad spectrum of optics on the nanometer scale covering technology and basic science. Compared to the behavior of isolated molecules or bulk materials; the behavior of nanostructures exhibit important physical properties not necessarily predictable from observations of either individual constituents or large ensembles. We develop and apply advanced optical characterization techniques to the study of solid-state and biological phenomena at the nanoscale. Current projects include development of high-resolution subsurface imaging techniques based on numerical aperture increasing lens (NAIL) for the study of semiconductor devices and circuits and spectroscopy of quantum dots; micro resonant Raman and emission spectroscopy of individual carbon nanotubes; biosensors based on microring resonators; and development of new nanoscale microscopy techniques utilizing interference of excitation as well as emission from fluorescent molecules. In addition to microscopy, optical resonance is nearly ubiqutious in our research projects including development of resonant cavity enhanced photodetectors and imaging biosensors for DNA and protein arrays. Faculty: Goldberg, Ünlü

PHOB15 Quantum Imaging Laboratory     http://www.bu.edu/qil/ | 617/353-9943     Research in the Quantum Imaging Laboratory focuses on photonic imaging systems that make use of the special properties of nonclassical light. Experiments are conducted on nonlinear optical parametric down-conversion; quantum coherence; quantum imaging; quantum interferometry and microscopy; and quantum communications and cryptography. Faculty: Saleh, Sergienko, Teich

PHO418 Radio Communications and Plasma Research Laboratories     617/353-5934     Field experiments are conducted in this lab using ground-based facilities and spacecraft-borne instruments to investigate radio-wave propagation and interactions with ionospheric plasmas, with applications to establishing artificial radio communication paths. Laboratory experiments with a large, toroidal plasma device are also conducted to study the microwave interactions with magnetoplasmas, simulating and crosschecking the results obtained in the field experiments. Faculty: Lee, Semeter

PHO302 Reliable Computing Laboratory     http://reliable.bu.edu/ | 617/353-9592     Members of the Reliable Computing Laboratory conduct research on a broad variety of topics, including the design of computer chips; efficient hardware testing at the chip, board, and system levels; functional software testing; efficient signal processing algorithms; coding and decoding; fault-tolerant message routing for multiprocessor systems; and the design of reliable computer networks. Faculty: Karpovsky, Levitin, Roziner, Taubin

PHO446 Visual Information Processing (VIP) Laboratory     http://vip.bu.edu/ | 617/353-0847     The VIP Laboratory provides computational and visualization infrastructure for research in the area of visual information processing. The topics of interest are: retrieval, analysis, compression, and transmission of visual information, whether in the form of still images, video sequences, or multimedia data. Two research thrusts are currently pursued. Videopsy (video autopsy) is concerned with the analysis of streaming video data from networked cameras. Some of its goals are: segmentation and tracking of moving objects, detection of normal and abnormal events, characterization of object flow patterns. The second thrust is concerned with the analysis, compression and visualization of stereoscopic and multiscopic (3-D) imagery. One application of this research is in the next-generation 3-D multimedia communications, while another is in biomedical visualization. Some of the problems studied are: disparity estimation (correspondence) under occlusions, wavelet-based compression in space-time, data pre-filtering for automultiscopic rendering. The VIP Laboratory is equipped with a network of state-of-the-art workstations to serve computational needs, while its visualization infrastructure includes 2-D and 3-D digital cameras and capture systems, as well as 3-D displays (shuttered and 9-view automultiscopic "Synthagram"). Faculty: Konrad

PHO303 VLSI and Neural Networks Systems (VNNS) Laboratory     http://www.bu.edu/vnns/ | 617/353-9882     The VNNS group designs, builds, and tests innovative architectures that span a wide variety of VLSI applications in electrical and biological fields. Chips designed using digital, analog, and subthreshold methodologies are realized using CMOS BiCMOS and Bipolar technologies. Applications include neural-net image processing, integrated photonic devices and parallel photonic testing, automatic partial-valued dynamic logic synthesis, single-chip large-molecule and DNA analyzers, and neural tissue interface chips. The group is equipped with a full suite of design tools and testing instrumentation for analog and digital systems. Faculty: Hubbard

PHO839 Wide Band Gap Semiconductors Laboratory     http://www.bu.edu/nitrides/ | 617/353-1248     In this laboratory, we investigate the growth, fabrication and characterization of devices based on the family of III-Nitride semiconductors. The materials are grown by MBE, MOCVD, HVPE and Gas cluster Ion-beam deposition (GCIB). The current focus is in the development of Optical Devices (Blue, Green, and UV-LEDs, UV-LDs, Optical Modulators, Detectors), Electronic Devices (High Power Diodes, Transistors and Thyristors) and Electromechanical Devices (SiC/III-Nitride MEMS sensors). Materials physics issues are also addressed and the group collaborates closely with Professor Enrico Bellotti in the area of theoretical modeling, Professor Karl Ludwig (Physics) in the area of materials structure, Professor Kevin Smith (Physics) in the area of electronic structure, and Professor Roberto Paiella in the area of devices based on intersubband transitions. Faculty: Moustakas