{"id":8188,"date":"2025-09-18T10:59:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T14:59:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/?p=8188"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:31:54","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:31:54","slug":"ekinci","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2025\/09\/18\/ekinci\/","title":{"rendered":"Hardware Programming for Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Mentors<\/h3>\n\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-4517 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-mse-dept departments-me affiliation-faculty program-year-yr-2015 program-year-yr-2018 program-year-yr-2021 program-year-yr-2022 program-year-186 profile-field-faculty profile-field-reu\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/kamil-ekinci\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/04\/Ekinci-Kamile.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Kamil Ekinci<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">Professor, ME, MSE<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-8185 profile type-profile status-publish hentry departments-me affiliation-graduate-student program-year-yr-2022 program-year-yr-2023 program-year-yr-2024\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/profile\/monan-ma\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\"><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/09\/Monan-Ma-240x360-copy.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\t\t\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Monan Ma<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">PhD Candidate<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\t\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Project Description<\/span><\/h3>\n<div>\n<div><span>The student will conduct background research on hardware programming and will build an all-electrical setup for precision measurement of an electro-mechanical resonator. The student will be provided with relevant hardware and software, including FPGA (field programmable gate arrays) boards, their corresponding IDEs (integrated development environment), and other pieces of electronics. The student will work closely with a graduate student and will be in charge of programming, building, and testing the electrical circuit.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><div class=\" bu-callout alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/12\/4L3A0719.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3573\" height=\"2382\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9851 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/12\/4L3A0719.jpg 3573w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/12\/4L3A0719-636x424.jpg 636w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/12\/4L3A0719-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/12\/4L3A0719-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/12\/4L3A0719-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/files\/2025\/12\/4L3A0719-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 3573px) 100vw, 3573px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Research Participant<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Program: INM REU\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Hear what Ricardo Gonzales is<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> taking with him from his time at BU.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><a href='https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/2025\/09\/24\/ricardo-gonzales\/' class='button button'>Learn More<\/a><\/div><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Research Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The goal of this research project is to make significant contributions to building an ultrasensitive, FPGA-based electrical measurement system for detecting high-frequency signals from nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS). This will be a compact, digital, and low-cost measurement system that improves upon the currently used analog setup, which is bulkier and more susceptible to external noise sources.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"><div class=\"bu_collapsible_container \" aria-live=\"polite\" data-customize-animation=\"false\"><h3 class=\"bu_collapsible\" aria-expanded=\"false\"tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\">Learning Goals<\/h3><div class=\"bu_collapsible_section\" style=\"display: none;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><span>Learn the basics of hardware programming and its key differences compared to software programming, and understand the concept of parallel computing.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Learn the workflow of how to use Verilog\/VHDL to program an FPGA board.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Learn about the concept of a balanced electrical measurement circuit, and divide it into individually programmable components.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Learn troubleshooting techniques, such as timing issues and hazards.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span>Learn how to build a digital electrical circuit. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h3><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Timeline<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 1-2:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Practice programming FPGA for simple logic operations, literature review, learn about electrical circuits under supervision of a graduate student.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 3-4:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Program individual electrical components on an FPGA board<span style=\"color: #003366;\">.<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 5-6:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Program individual electrical components on an FPGA board (cont\u2019d).<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Week 7-8:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Test and troubleshoot individual components.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong>Weeks 9-10:<\/strong><\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Build a working FPGA-based circuit by assembling individual components and test its functionality, poster preparation<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"color: #003366;\"><strong><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mentors Project Description The student will conduct background research on hardware programming and will build an all-electrical setup for precision measurement of an electro-mechanical resonator. The student will be provided with relevant hardware and software, including FPGA (field programmable gate arrays) boards, their corresponding IDEs (integrated development environment), and other pieces of electronics. The student [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19768,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19768"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8188"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10400,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8188\/revisions\/10400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/photonics-programs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}