Smart Lighting Center (SLC) at Boston University

Faculty

Hatice Altug Faculty Investigator, Nanophotonic Devices for Optical Communications Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Boston University

Jeff Carruthers Testbed Leader, Indoor Communications Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Boston University

	Thomas Little ERC Associate Director and SLC/BU Site Coordinator Testbed Leader, Outdoor Communications and Transportation Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Boston University
	Michael Ruane Education Outreach Coordinator, SLC/BU Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Boston University

Staff

Linda Grosser Public Relations and Industrial Outreach Coordinator, SLC/BU Associate Director, Center for Information and Systems Engineering Boston University

Faculty

Hatice Altug

Hatice Altug is Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Division of Materials Science and Engineering, and Faculty Investigator of the Smart Lighting ERC. 

Professor Altug’s Laboratory of Integrated Nanophotonics and Biosensing Systems (LINBS) focuses on developing a new generation of smart light sources whose spectral composition, color temperature, polarization, spatial and temporal modulation properties are fully controllable and tunable.  These controls in lighting technology will change many aspects of our life from transportation to communication as well as enabling advances in fundamental sciences. In order to achieve these new functionalities, we are using photonic band gap materials. These are man-made nanomaterials with periodic dielectric index modulation that is on the order of wavelength of light. They offer unprecedented control over light and light-matter interaction and open tremendous opportunities to engineer new lighting devices.

Related Publications:

H. Altug, D. Englund, J. Vuckovic, "Low Threshold Surface-Passivated Photonic Crystal Nanocavity Laser," Applied Physics Letters, 91 071124 (2007).

H. Altug, D. Englund, I. Fushman, J. Vuckovic, "Efficient Terahertz Room-temperature Photonic Crystal Nanocavity Laser," Applied Physics Letters 91 071126 (2007).

H. Altug, D. Englund, J. Vuckovic, "Ultra-fast Photonic Crystal Nanocavity Laser," Nature Physics, 2, 484-488, (2006).

H. Altug, J. Vuckovic, "Photonic crystal nanocavity array laser," Optics Express, 13, 8819 (2005).

H. Altug, J. Vuckovic, "Polarization control and sensing with two-dimensional coupled photonic crystal microcavity arrays," Optics Letters, 30, 982 (2005).

H. Altug, J. Vuckovic, "Experimental demonstration of small group velocity of light in two-dimensional coupled photonic crystal microcavity arrays," Applied Physics Letters, 86, 111102 (2005).

H. Altug, N. C. Helman, J. E. Roth, D. P. Bour, D. Miller, "Misalignment-Tolerant Surface-Normal Low-Voltage Modulator for Optical Interconnects," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 11, 338 (2005).

H. Altug, J. Vuckovic, "Two-dimensional coupled photonic crystal resonator arrays," Applied Physics Letters, 84 161 (2004).

H. Altug, Mehmet F. Yanik, J. Vuckovic, "Sub-micron all-optical digital memory and integration of nano-scale photonic devices without isolators," IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology, 22, 2316 (2004).

H. Altug, B. Temelkuran, E. Ozbay, "Experimental investigation of layer-by-layer metallic photonic crystals," IEEE Proceedings on Optoelectronics, 145, 409 (1998).

Learn more about Professor Altug.

Jeff Carruthers

Jeffrey Carruthers is Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty Investigator, and the Indoor Communications Testbed Leader.

Professor Carruthers research focus in the grant is in the Systems area, with a particular focus on visible light-based communication and the requirements of materials and devices to support ubiquitous free-space optical communications. Carruthers' work will center on communication link design and modeling: modulation, interference, noise, system configuration optimization, and the devices. The communication link ties into the requirements of networking and applications, providing the "horsepower" for systems applications, and also will be a driver for development of novel devices and materials to meet the challenges of the free-space optical communication environment.

Related Publications:

J. B. Carruthers and S. M. Carroll, "Statistical Models for Indoor Optical Wireless Channels," Special Issue of the International Journal of Communication Systems: Indoor Optical Wireless Communication Systems and Networks. Vol. 18, pages 267-284, 2005.

J. B. Carruthers, S. M. Carroll, and P. Kannan, "Propagation Modeling for Indoor Optical Wireless Communications using Fast Multireceiver Channel Estimation." IEEE Optoelectronics Special Issue on Optical Wireless Communications, Vol. 150, pp. 473-481, Oct 2003.

J. B. Carruthers, chapter "Wireless Infrared Communications," in Encyclopedia of Telecommunications, J. G. Proakis, editor. New York: Wiley, 2002.

J. B. Carruthers and J. M. Kahn, "Angle diversity for nondirected wireless infrared communication," IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 48, pp. 960-969, June 2000.

J. B. Carruthers and J. M. Kahn, "Modeling of nondirected wireless infrared channels," IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 45, pp. 1260-1268, Oct. 1997.

Learn more about Professor Carruthers.

Linda Grosser

Linda Grosser is the Associate Director of the Center for Information and Systems Engineering (CISE) at Boston University (BU), an interdisciplinary research center focusing in analysis, design and management of complex systems such as communcations, wireless networking, robotics, systems biology and supply chains. She co-founded and directs the BU Sensor Network Consortium (SNC), an industry-academic forum addressing research, development and adoption challenges of sensor networking technology and its applications. Leading business development and other administration functions for the CISE, Linda develops collaborations across Boston University including faculty and students from Computer Science, Engineering, Management and Mathematics, as well as with external partners from academia, government and industry.

Linda is a veteran of IBM Corporation's marketing organization where she worked on both the technical and business sides serving clients in insurance, manufacturing and the federal executive branch. She has held numerous executive positions in support of the Newton Public Schools, and is a freelance street photographer. Linda received her B.A. in mathematics from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Thomas Little

Thomas Little is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Principal Investigator, and Associate Director of the NSF Smart Lighting ERC. Little oversees the Boston University effort of the grant as Site Coordinator and is also the Outdoor Communications and Transportation Testbed Leader.

Professor Little’s research focus in the grant is in the Systems area – in the adaptation of novel LED-based materials and devices for the support of visible-light-based communication and communications networking.  By exploiting the ubiquity of future man-made lighting from solid state (LED) devices we anticipate ubiquitous network connectivity. Little’s research is directed at the intersection of networking, free-space optical communications, and the "anywhere” computing that they enable. Examples include supporting “trickle” data dissemination in sensor networks, achieving HD video streaming in high bandwidth-density scenarios such as aircraft seating, and improving vehicular safety via robust vehicle-to-vehicle communications.

Related Publications:

T.D.C. Little, P. Dib, K. Shah, N. Barraford, and B. Gallagher, "Using LED Lighting for Ubiquitous Indoor Wireless Networking," to appear at the 4th IEEE Intl. Conf. on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob 2008) October, 2008, Avignon, France.

T.D.C. Little and A. Agarwal "Connecting Vehicles to 'The Grid,'" Proc. NITRD National Workshop on High-Confidence Automotive Cyber-Physical Systems, April 3-4, 2008, Troy, MI.

A. Agarwal, D Starobinski, and T.D.C. Little, "Exploiting Downstream Mobility to Achieve Fast Upstream Message Propagation in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks," Proc. Mobile Networking for Vehicular Environments 2007, Infocom 2007, Anchorage, AK, May 2007.

A. Agarwal and T.D.C. Little, "Prospects for Networked Vehicles of the Future," Proc. Workshop on Smart Transportation, 13th IEEE Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium, Bellevue, WA, April 2007.

Learn more about Professor Little.

Michael Ruane

Michael Ruane is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Boston University and the Education Outreach Coordinator for SLC/BU. He also directs the instructional High Tech Tools & Toys Laboratory at BU.

Professor Ruane is the College of Engineering's Faculty Director for Outreach in charge of developing broader imapcts, K-12 connections, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education (STEM) activities, and undergraduate research efforts. He is also the Boston University site coordinator for the Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS), a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center.

Professor Ruane received the B.E.E. degree from Villanova University in 1969 and the S.M.E.E. and Ph.D. degree in Systems Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973 and 1980, respectively.

Professor Ruane's research focuses on instrumentation design; optical systems for imaging, sensing and detection, especially for biomaterials; modeling of thin film and nano-structured materials, especially with biological or magnetic features; and engineering education methods.

Related publications:

D. A. Bergstein, I. E. Ozkumur, A. C. Wu, A. Yalcin, J. Needham, R. Irani, J. Gershoni, B. Goldberg, C. DeLisi, M. F. Ruane, and M. S. Ünlü, "Resonant Cavity Imaging: A Means Toward High-Throughput Label-Free Protein Detection," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 14, No. 1, January/February 2008.

M. Ruane, “Vertically Integrated Research Experiences,” 9th International Conference on Engineering Education, San Juan, PR, July 2006.

D. Bergstein, M. F. Ruane, M. Selim Ünlü, "Silicon Substrates with Buried Distributed Bragg Reflectors for Biosensing," 2005 International Semiconductor Device Research Symposium (ISDRS 2005) Bethesda MD. Dec. 7-9, 2005.

D. Bergstein, M. F. Ruane, B. B. Goldberg, and M. S. Ünlü, "Resonant Cavity Imaging Biosensor," IEEE Lightwave Technologies in Instrumentation & Measurement Conference 2004, 19-20 October 2004

R.P. Prasankumar, I. Hartl, J.T. Gopinath, E.P. Ippen, J.G. Fujimoto, P. Mak, M.F. Ruane, "Design and Characterization of Semiconductor-Doped Silica Film Saturable Absorbers,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. B., 21, no. 4, 851-857, 2004.

Learn more about Professor Ruane.